Phantom Ninja
by OnionKing
Summary: On the night of the Kyuubi attack, Minato and Kushina had their final argument. Kushina won, allowing Naruto Uzumaki to become a jinchuriki on the condition that he was sent to a different dimension using a forbidden Uzumaki technique. With her dying breath, Kushina passed Naruto onto a passing man, Jose Porla. And so Naruto grew up to become the Phantom Ninja.
1. Introduction

Tailed beasts are gigantic monsters of chakra that have existed in this world for just as long as shinobi have. They all are strong enough to take out entire villages or even an entire country alone. Only the very best shinobi have a chance of battling against them, but few of those people existed in this current era. In order to control these monsters they were sealed inside of humans so they could be imprisoned, and sometimes controlled. These humans are known as jinchuriki and they have the potential to use the tailed beast's power to become incredibly strong. The tailed beasts and jinchuriki are treated as weapons of war, even though that a jinchuriki is actually human. Since the tailed beasts are a weapon of mass destruction, each of the Five Great Shinobi Countries has their own tailed beast to keep the balance of power between the countries. If a country or hidden village loses their jinchuriki and tailed beasts then other countries could use this opportunity to destroy the village. This is why the balance of power between the countries is important.

These jinchuriki try to live normal lives in the villages they are raised in. Unfortunately however, other people see these jinchuriki as something not human because of the tailed beast they house. These jinchuriki are usually isolated and treated unfairly by the very people they are protecting. Only a jinchuriki can understand the pain and suffering of another jinchuriki however they are never able to meet each other as allies. The life of a jinchuriki is a sad and lonely one.

Konohagakure is one such village that has a jinchuriki in order to protect its villagers. The leader of the village, the Hokage, ensures that the jinchuriki is well treated and cared for. The other villages knew that Konoha had a jinchuriki, but only a handful of people in the village knew who it was. This is the reason that they were surprised by the sudden attack on the village by the Nine Tails. The village shinobi took up arms against this beast, while trying to protect normal civilians and children. The retired Third Hokage led this defence while his successor the Fourth Hokage was nowhere to be seen. The Third was one of the few people who knew the identity of the host, and he had no idea what had happened.

The name of the host was Kushina Uzumaki and the Nine Tails was inside of her until a few minutes ago. But that was not the only thing recently removed. She had just given birth to a baby boy, her first child, when a mysterious masked man attacked, and unsealed the Nine Tails from her. Her husband, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze had defeated the masked man in battle and chased him away. Normally when a jinchuriki has their tailed beasts removed they die, however Kushina was from the Uzumaki clan who had increasable longevity and was still clinging onto life. Minato had used his signature jutsu, Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God), to teleport Kushina, himself, their child, and the Nine Tails to a fair distance away from village.

In between his failing attempt to regain air in his lungs, Minato told Kushina "Gotta put up a barrier…" Minato was a very tall man whose back would be able to give any shinobi who followed him courage, but currently this back was slumped over with exhaustion. He had just fought against one of the strongest opponents he had ever faced, teleported away two large balls of explosive chakra, the giant lump of chakra that created the two balls, and teleported a few more times for his family, all in order to protect the village which gave him the Hokage coat he was wearing.

Kushina was also puffing hard. She was holding onto life with sheer willpower. It was impossible for her to survive this ordeal but she could not leave this monster loose. "My chakra's almost drained…" She forced those words out as she used her special ability. Chains started flying out of her body. Half of the chains surrounded the nearby area, sealing them all inside a barrier, while the other half wrapped around the Nine Tails and forced it to the ground.

"Kushina!" Minato watched as his wife used some of her little remaining energy holding down the beast. The sound of the chains woke up the sleeping child who was resting in Minato's arms.

"Sorry Naruto…" Kushina was barely managing to hold these sentences. "I didn't… mean to wake you." Minato just watched in shock as his wife was the weakest he's ever seen her. She was usually the pillar holding him up, but now she was as fragile as a leaf, if the wind was too strong she could disappear from his sights. "I'll drag the Nine Tails … back… and die with it inside me… That'll… prevent it from… coming back… for a while… It's the only way to save you both… With the little bit of chakra I have left. Thank you… for everything…" Kushina was pushing herself long beyond her limits to deliver this message. It was then that Minato realised what she was saying.

"Kushina… you…" Minato finally gather his thought. "You made me your husband, you made me into the Fourth Hokage, you made m this boy's father, and I…" Minato's face became more depressed the more he spoke.

"Don't look so sad, Minato." As weak as she was, she could still comfort her husband. She had finally regained her breath and was ready to use it. "I'm…I'm happy. Happy that you loved me. Happy that it's… our son's… birthday. If I try to image surviving, and the three of us living together, I can't think of anything beyond 'I'd be so happy.' If I had any regrets. It would be that I won't see Naruto grow up." Minato had started crying throughout Kushina's proclamation.

It was then that Minato finally resolved. He quickly thought about his encounter with the masked man, the village which he swore to protect, and his teacher who taught him everything he knows. "Kushina… you don't need to take the fox down with you. We can use our last bit of chakra to see Naruto one more time." After a quick pause to wipe away his tears Minato turned off the family man within him and became a Hokage. "I'll seal the last of your chakra in Naruto, as well as the Nine Tails with an Eight Trigrams Seal. This will let you see Naruto when he's older, and will keep the balance of the tailed beasts between villages."

"Are you serious?" Kushina was in a state of disbelief. "Our son. Our SON, and you want him to become a jinchuriki? The village will know that the Nine Tails is within him, so he cannot be announced as your son. He will be left alone as a jinchuriki. You don't understand if it wasn't for you I would have broken under the weight that this beast IS. AND YOU WANT TO PUT IT ON YOUR OWN SON."

"LOOK!" Minato finally took a demanding tone. "Jiraiya-sensei spoke of the world undergoing a great revolution, and with it, a great disaster. Tonight I've confirmed two things. The first is that masked man, the one who attacked you; he is the harbinger of that disaster, and Naruto will be the one to stop him. The jinchuriki who will blaze the trail to our future. I just know it."

Kushina thought for a bit. "I'm sorry Minato, I can't let him feel this pain. But it has to be done… I am a ninja too." Minato's face became relieved. He finally had her approval. "But on once condition. We don't let him live in the Elemental Nations. I want him to live happily in a world where they don't know what a tailed beast is, or what a jinchuriki is, it'd be nice if they didn't know what war was either." Minato was about to object. "I can't let him be hated for something we did to him…" Once again Minato's face softened.

"We don't even know if that world will have shinobi." Minato still had protests. "Then what. The masked man will go after him. He won't be able to fight back."

"But Naruto needs to have a life. I don't want him to suffer." Kushina was now pleading.

"WE ARE A FAMILY OF SHINOBI!" Minato was having an internal turmoil. He needed to protect the village, but he also wanted to protect his family.

"WE ARE A FAMILY FIRST! PROTECT YOUR SON!" Both of them remained silent. The Nine Tails wasn't resisting anymore, he was interested in the direction of the conversation. "Minato. Take this gamble with me. I want our son to live happily in a world without war. This is the only way."

"But Kushina. We are the only people who know how to send people to this other dimension. It's an Uzumaki technique after all. If we do this, our son will not know about our world. He will have no family; he will have no one from his home world. He will be alone."

"Even if we leave him here, he will be alone. A jinchuriki is always alone." Kushina looks down in sadness. "I'm out of time Minato. You need to decide."

With a simple nod of his head Minato decided to complete his wife's last wish. He decided to save his child in an unconventional way. He sealed the Nine Tails inside the child named Naruto and then did a space/time ninjutsu to send herself and the child to another world.

Struggling for breath, Kushina was laying on a patch of grass in the middle of an unfamiliar place. Minato's jutsu worked. In her arms was Naruto, her newborn son. A shadow approached.

"What an unusual power surge. I wonder what it was." A shadow approached the dying woman and her child. Fortunately the spoken language was the same. Kushina tried her best to sit up but she couldn't. The shadow now stood over the woman.

"Please… Care for… my son…" The shadow remained silent. "Please…"

The shadow bent down and picked up the boy. "What is his name?" Kushina smiled as she forced out her last two words.

"Naruto… Uzumaki…"

XxX

"This is by far the weirdest dream I've ever had." A young boy stood in the centre of an unusual room. This room was the size of a castles guest hall which was meant to house over 100 people comfortably. However, unlike the castle hall this room was dark, gloomy and had water resting along the bottom. It was comparable to a sewer. Preventing anything from approaching one of the walls was a giant gate. This gate had a lock halfway up with a piece of paper over it. This paper had a word on it that was unfamiliar to the boy.

The boy himself was around 12 years old. He had bright yellow hair which complimented his deep blue eyes. His hair was untamed and went in every direction possible. There are three whisker-like marks on each side of his face, giving him a more animalistic look. He was currently wearing his bright orange pyjamas. The boy believed he was in a dream since the last thing he remembered doing was going to sleep. What added more to this thought was the fact that he was talking to a giant fox creature with nine tails who was on the other side of the giant gate.

"So let me get this straight. I, Naruto Uzumaki, am in fact a visitor from another world. And this other world is full of ninjas who are using giant beasts like you as weapons. Not only that, but my parents sealed one of these beasts inside of me for my own protection, and you are this beast. Am I correct so far?"

"That is correct." The giant fox nodded his head.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Naruto raised his fist in annoyance. Then he finally thought about it and calmed down. "This is just a dream. Don't get angry at a dream."

"I assure you this is not a dream." The giant fox once again spoke. His loud booming voice echoed along the walls. "This world you are in now is not the one you are born in. You are from the Elemental Nations."

"Um… no." Naruto started rubbing his temples. "I am not some ninja from this Elemental Nations. I am a mage from Earthland. This is facts, I need to wake up."

"What about that picture? The one that you have hidden. It has a language on it you've never seen before. The written languages of these two places are different but the spoken one is the same." Kurama was equally as annoyed as Naruto.

"Look. You are just some delusion I have conjured up so let's just forget about this dream so I can get some proper rest." Naruto started to walk away.

"Okay, get some rest. But you will come back tomorrow."

XxX

The Next Night

"Why am I here again?" Naruto once again opened his eyes to find himself lying down in water.

"Welcome back." The fox just grinned at the boy. "Now are you ready to believe me?"

"I felt exhausted today because of this dream. I can't get a good sleep if you keep talking to me." Naruto picked himself up and trudged towards to cage. "Look. I will make you a deal. I will believe that you are not a figment of my imagination but are in fact a monster that was sealed within me. But in return you will let me get enough sleep so I can train properly the next day."

"I can make that deal. But why are you making a deal with your imagination?" The fox started to laugh as the boy grumbled to himself. "Alright. Now listen carefully brat. The people from this world, Earthland are slightly different than the people from the Elemental Nations. A person will have a type of power infused with their life force, and as this power depletes so does a person's energy. Now as you know in Earthland the main source of power is magic. Every person has it but not all of them can use it. In the Elemental Nations the main source of power is called chakra. It is similar in its function, but the main difference is what it can do. From what I've seen some of the things magic can do chakra can't and some of the things chakra can so magic can't, and there are some things that they both can do but are done differently."

"Hold on a second. If you are a monster trapped inside me form this Elemental Nations then how do you know about magic." Naruto thought he had found a flaw in his imagination.

"I've been inside you for 12 years. The person who picked you up is a powerful mage. I have seen just as much magic as you have you brat." The child grumbled to himself. "What I was going to say before you interrupted was that this is the best way for me to show you that these two worlds exist. You were born in the Elemental Nations so you should have had an affinity for chakra, but since you have been learning magic that also became heavily intertwined with your life force. So you have the ability to use both chakra and magic. I can teach you some chakra based moves while you continue to learn magic based moves."

"This sounds like a pain in the ass… Why do all this, can't I just train magic only and get strong the normal way?"

"You don't want to get stronger faster?" Kurama asked a question he already knew the answer to.

"You know that's not what I mean." Naruto scratched his blond hair. "I can learn magic, and that should be all I need."

"Listen brat. Chakra can do things magic can't, so why not learn both and become amazingly strong. This way even if that masked bastard appears we can defeat him."

"Wait…" Naruto interjected when he realised something. "Didn't you say that my parents were the only people able to transport people between the two worlds, then the masked man won't be able to come here. So there is no need for this chakra training."

"But he will eventually make his way here. He wants me for something; I don't think attacking Konoha was a part of that plan, but for a more personal reason. I don't know too much, but since he will eventually come for us, we should be prepared."

"Eeeh… This seems tiresome."

"Shut up and deal with it. You should get some actual sleep now. You'll be back tomorrow." Kurama said as Naruto fell into a deep sleep.

XxX

The Next Night

"Hey Nine Tails."

"My name is Kurama brat. Remember it."

"Hey Kurama brat." Naruto kept speaking ignoring Kurama's roar. "Why are you doing this? Would you normally talk to your hosts like this?" Naruto asked as soon as he arrived. He had gotten use to this transition from lying in bed to lying in a sewer.

"Actually no. I didn't have any of these conversations with your mother." Kurama honestly answered. "But this is different. We are currently in a world that I am unfamiliar with, and my host is learning a power that I am unfamiliar with, so I am doing things a little differently."

"Hmmm… Okay then. I still don't trust you though."

"Good. Because I am not trying to be your friend. Let me warn you about something. I am not your friend, if anything I am your biggest enemy." These words surprised Naruto a bit. "The first chance I get to escape I will take it. That is half the reason I am going to teach you chakra. The more you use it, the weaker this seal keeping me here will get. And if you keep using it I will eventually get free."

"Then why would I want to learn it?"

"Because you will be strong. Really strong. You can defeat who you want to defeat. You can protect what you want to protect. You can save who you want to save. This will be your ultimate weapon, but it will also be your ultimate weakness. This is a risk you will have to take in order to win against the masked man when he arrives. If he is who I think he is then you will need it."

"This is just annoying. I really hope this ends up being my delusion." Naruto rubbed his temples. "I'll start trying to learn this 'chakra' tomorrow. Gnight."

XxX

A week later.

"So it looks like it wasn't a dream." The blond Naruto was wide awake and wearing his normal attire, consisting of black pants, an orange shirt and a black jacket. The wind blew through his hair as he stood at the peak of a tree. He managed to climb the tree with only the sole of his feet, using chakra to stick to the side. He even asked the master, but there wasn't any known magic's that could make a person walk on walls quite like this. Flying was possible, so was sticking to walls, but there wasn't anything quite like using magic power to grab onto the wall for you.

"What are you doing up there? Let's go." Naruto looked down to see the master waiting for him.

"Sorry. I was just trying something." Naruto jumped off the tree and landed beside the taller man. He had long straight black hair which could barely be see past his purple jester hat. His high collared cloak that matched his hat makes him stand out in any crowd. His pointed tip shoes further this image of a jester; however this man was far from it. Around the neck of his plain white shirt was a medallion given only to members of the Ten Wizard Saints. His green eyes were covered with the shadow of his hat, and he also has a thin moustache that almost reaches his chin. Probably the most unusual part of his outfit would be the bat wings on the back of his cloak.

This man was Jose Porla, and was the one who found Naruto and his mother around 12 years ago.

"What magic did you use to get up there?" Jose asked as he started walking to their destination. "Was it that stick to the wall with magic thing?"

"Yeah. I can't explain it properly though." Naruto had to occasionally jog to keep up with Jose.

"Interesting." That was all Jose said before the two of them fell into silence. Jose may have been the one to find and look after the infant Naruto, however Jose had told Naruto from day one that he was not his father, and that he found him as a child. Jose wasn't the caring type either. He had made sure Naruto grew up healthy and strong but that was it. Other members of Jose's guild Phantom Lord, were told that if they had time to look after Naruto they should be out there completing requests. Naruto had to mostly fend for himself, but Jose was always nearby watching. And so the two of them had a bond no one else could understand.

"So what is the mission today?" Naruto casually asked. As soon as Naruto was old enough, Jose started teaching him magic, and Naruto was very eager to learn. It didn't take long for Naruto to learn the basics, and as soon as he did, Jose started getting certain members of the guild to take him on certain missions. He believed the fastest way to learn was in the field. After a few years, Jose started taking Naruto along with him personally. As the guild master he rarely went on requests, but when he did they were of reasonable importance, or they were difficult enough to require a Wizard Saint to complete. Today was a day where Jose was going on a mission and wanted to bring Naruto along.

"This is a job from the Magic Council. A dark guild is threatening a village. Supposedly they are strong enough to ask the strongest guild to take them out. We're going to deal with them ourselves." Jose smiled. They were underestimating his guild, so he would go out and deal with it himself. Dark Guilds are guilds who disobey the Magic Council by taking on requests that are considered illegal, such as assassination. But there was also a law from the Magic Council stating that fights between guilds are also illegal, even if one of the guilds are a Dark Guild. This is why a request like this is rare. This is a good opportunity for Naruto to get some battle experience in a life or death scenario. This was Jose's intention, even though he would never say it aloud.

"So what did they do to piss of the Council?" Naruto just wanted to make small talk with the person who raised him, but Jose ignored him. It was a stupid question. All Dark Guilds have done something illegal which makes the council want to destroy them.

Jose stepped into the backseats of the Magic Four Wheel Car while Naruto sat in the front and attached the SE plug to use his magic to power the car.

[I wonder what happens if I use chakra to power it instead.] Naruto thought to himself before he took off. He thought it was worth a try and started to flow it into the SE plug. Kurama had told Naruto that it normally would have taken a lot longer for Naruto to become so adept at using chakra, however since he was already use to magic, the process was greatly shortened. Mastering both will be difficult, but he could successfully use both for the most part.

The Magic Car suddenly jolted forward as it begun to accelerate at an unbelievable rate. But then it suddenly stopped sending Naruto forward. If Naruto didn't grab the seat with chakra he would have went flying. A loud noise rang from behind Naruto.

"NAAAARUTO!"

"SORRY SORRY SORRY!" Naruto started yelling as he used his magic to start driving properly.

[Note to self. Do not use chakra with an SE plug. It doesn't work.]

XxX

"Hey, Master." Naruto had been driving for a few hours to their destination. Jose hadn't said a word since they took off. "Can you tell me about how you found me again?"

"Again? I've told you about this before."

"Yeah, it's just that I would like to know more since I am older now."

"You are half a year older. I don't think it'll make a difference." Jose spoke without emotion. Naruto knew he had a point, there wasn't anything he could gain from it, but Kurama had told him about how he ended up there and it made him want to hear it again. Without being prompted Jose started speaking.

"I had just finished a job. It was a rather easy one, but it finalised the Council's decision to make me into a Wizard Saint. So I started to head back to the guild that I was a part of at the time, it is long since gone, so it's not important. As I was on my way I passed through a grassy meadow. It was peaceful and there was no one around. But suddenly I felt a massive spike of power. It was something that I had never felt before. I quickly ran towards the source and found a beautiful woman lying on the grass. She had dazzling long red hair, and violet eyes. I noticed how beautiful she was even though she was so worn out. It looked as though she had gone through a lot, so I assumed she was the source of the power I felt.

"So I approached her and asked about the power, but as soon as I looked at her eyes directly, I could tell that she didn't have long left to live and none of my magic would have helped. She held up a bundle of cloth and I wondered what it was so I reached forward and grabbed it. It turned out to be a baby boy, it was you. With her dying breaths she asked me to care for you, no not asked, she pleaded me to care for you. So I asked what your name was, and she replied with Naruto Uzumaki.

"I wasn't able to learn whether she was the source of the power or not, but I had agreed to raise you. But first I had to bury her. I carried her and you to a nearby town. I was close to the coast so the first town I found was Hargeon. I sought food for you and a place to bury the woman. They did consider me suspicious; after all I walked into town holding a corpse, but they made sure you were alright before calling the Rune Knights. I was fairly renowned so calling the army wasn't an over exaggeration. But once I told them how I found her they believed me. After all no one can be stupid enough to walk into town holding a corpse and a child if you were the one to kill them. Also they saw that is was an internally caused death, and none of my magic could do that, the Magic Council was investigating me as a candidate for the Wizard Saint at the time.

"So I made sure you were comfortable and hired a wet nurse, after all I have never raised a child before. I only used her for two years so I would be surprised if you remembered her. And I also arranged a funeral for your mother. I had her dressed up into a nice dress, of course I didn't dress her myself, but I looked through her belongings. I found a photo of your father with her which had words from an unfamiliar language on them, as well as a few other things that belonged to her. I talked with the church there and we agreed that this should be held onto until you are of a suitable age. We agreed that 20 was a good age except we couldn't leave you with nothing so I kept the photo that you now have. And so we buried your mother in the cemetery and the church is holding onto your mother's belongings until you turn 20.

"So that is the story again. Happy?" Jose asked to finish his story.

"Yeah. Thanks Master." Naruto said with a smile. He had heard it before but always enjoyed listening to it. Naruto knew that Jose really cared for him, but wasn't the type to show it, but this story goes to show how much effort Jose puts in for Naruto behind the scenes. On multiple occasions, Naruto could have sworn that he saw Jose watching him complete a job, but could never get a good look.

"Hey do you feel that?" Jose spoke out loud. He seemed to be alarmed for some reason. "Naruto look at the smoke." Naruto had been driving the whole time but didn't see any smoke, until he got a little further and saw a large amount of smoke arising from the horizon.

"What the…? Isn't that…"

"Yeah. That's where our mission is."

XxX

From that point Naruto flooded the SE plug with as much magic power as he could, reaching the max speed the Magic Car could go. When they got close Jose, swung himself out of the main carriage and stood on the roof of the car.

"This is close enough." Jose calmly said as Naruto reached 100 metres of the village entrance. You could see quite a few people running around some held weapons and others appeared to be running for their lives. Blasts of magic were sent flying towards those running away killing them almost instantly. Naruto was starting to get angry at the sight. They weren't even fighting back.

"Calm yourself boy." Jose jumped off the car and placed his hands together. "If you walk into a fight angry, either your senses will be dulled or you use your anger to increase your strength and completely destroy your enemy." Naruto could see the veins pulsing on Jose's head. He was pissed. Jose released his hands creating an army of shades that charged straight for the village. These shades looked like a liquid shadow trapped within a black cloak.

"I'm going too." Naruto started to run after the shades. Jose quickly caught up to him.

"Don't kill them until you confirm they are a member of the Dark Guild. Don't kill anyone else." Jose ordered. "Asuras Wing's emblem looks like that." Jose pointed at the nearby Dark Guild member. He was even taller than Jose. The mark on his neck was visible thanks to the flames. The mark looked like two faces surrounded by a square made up or arms. Naruto had no time to comment on the design as he shoved his knee into the guys face, forcing him to stumble backwards. One of Jose's shades ran a shadow sword through the man.

Naruto ran further into the village looking for more members of Asuras Wing. Naruto soon saw a white haired child of about 5 years old crying while clutching a burned corpse. He was surrounded by five men.

"We could fetch a good price for this kid, kekekeke." A man with the emblem on his forearm said as he pointed his spear at the child.

"ORDERS STATE TO KILL THEM ALL! WE WILL FOLLOW THOSE ORDERS!" Another man said as he saluted.

"Shut up. You're loud." The man lying down beside the corpse's voice could barely be heard by those around him. The child was shaking from fear. He couldn't do anything to the men around him. He was entirely at their mercy.

"ORDERS STATE YOU NEED TO SPEAK LOUDER!" The second man spoke again.

"I said shut uRGH!" The man lying down was interrupted when Naruto planted his foot in the man's gut.

"Hi there." Naruto formed a sword shaped thing around his left hand. It was magic that Jose taught him. Darkness Magic. Those who use Darkness Magic will have their own colour that distinguishes their darkness. This colour had no real impact on the spells themselves, but it merely mirrors the darkness within the user. Whenever Jose used darkness it was accompanied by a purple tint. Whenever Naruto used darkness it was accompanied predominately by an orange tint, but also had tints of red and yellow. So Naruto had an orange darkness sword. Naruto instantly plunged his sword into the face of the man he stood on.

"What is this magic?" One of the men spoke as he jumped back. The other four soon followed. "It feels… disgusting."

"Of course it is." Naruto smiled as he made the sword vanish. "After all, it is my darkness."

"ORDERS STATE KILL HIM!" The four of them charged forward swinging their weapons. The first guys sword lit on fire, while the second guy's knuckles were encased with shadow. The other two both had daggers that radiated a light.

"Although, you are more disgusting than my magic." Naruto said as he waved his hands. A whip made out of orange darkness formed on both his hands and Naruto swung them all around him body. The first two didn't see it coming and got their necks broken. The second had enough time to catch it in his hands preventing him from getting hurt and the other used his dagger to block it, but the dagger shattered.

"What the… Who are you?" The one who hadn't spoken until now asked.

"ORDERS STATE THAT MARK BELONGS TO PHANTOM LORD." The loud one pointed at Naruto's right forearm.

"Shit. This won't be easy."

"I will not show mercy to you who attacked this village and would harm a helpless child. I will kill you with my own hands." Naruto bent his knees slightly taking a fighting stance.

"ORDERS STATE YOU TRY TO CHALLENGE ME TO HAND TO HAND COMBAT! ORDERS STATE YOU HAVE NO CHANCE AT… BLEGH!" He didn't even see Naruto move but Naruto had his fist dug into the man's gut. Not only that but a line of orange darkness shot out of his fist opening a hole in his gut. "Orders… state… I lose…" The man crumpled as Naruto turned around.

"What orders was he talking about anyway?" Naruto asked no one in particular as he turned to face the last guy.

"Eeh.. eehh eheehh… hiiiiiiiiiiiiii." The last man started to run away.

"Tch." Naruto clicked his tongue as he pointed at the back of the man's head. "Bang" Naruto said as a bullet of orange darkness shot out of his finger. The man collapsed. "Are you alright?" Naruto leaned down and offered his hand to the kid. The child didn't say a world.

"It's fine. You don't need to speak to me. You can stay here if you want or you can come with me. The safest place right now would be beside me." The child nodded and grabbed Naruto's hand.

"Is this your mother?" Naruto asked the child who nodded in response. "Alright then." Naruto then placed his free hand on the ground causing the ground to rise and completely cover the corpse. "This way you can bury her later." Naruto could do more than just Darkness Magic, but not at the level where it would be useful in combat.

XxX

Jose had his shades in groups. Some were patrolling the area looking for more members of Asuras Wing, others were looking for survivors and bringing them to a safe area which Naruto was protecting. The rest were putting out the fires with their own bodies. After a good hour, the fires had finally died down.

Naruto had quite a few burn marks on him from running through fire to save some villagers, and also had a couple of cuts from stronger members of Asuras Wing. But he could still fight another round if he needed to.

"There are no more members of Asuras Wing here." Jose said as he approached the survivor area. "However my shades saw a number of them escaping back to the direction of their guild, so our mission is still active."

"This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If only we were here earlier we could have prevented this." Naruto said as he looked down. With the way he fought, it was sometimes hard to remember that he was a 12 year old.

"Don't blame yourself. There is no point dwelling on the past. Let us make sure they can't do this again." Jose said as he walked towards the survivors. He was going to explain what he was going to do, as well as leave some shades behind just in case. As soon as he was done he started to walk off and Naruto followed. "Let's get this done by night time. We have to be back with the villagers by then just in case."

"If they're all in the same place, it won't take more than an hour." Naruto kept on an emotionless mask, but it was clear that he was still just as angry as when they started.

"Maybe. I was told that the masters are strong. What do you know about Asura's?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know anything. "The myth is that they are beings who can fight against gods. I don't know if they are real or not, but they have multiple arms, and faces. I've never heard of them having wings before though. There are three 'faces' or masters in this guild, each of who have two 'arms' or second in commands. This is where the Asura comes from. Supposedly these masters are all high S-Class level in strength."

"Meh. You are one of the Ten Wizard Saints. An hour at most." Naruto confidently spoke. The two of them walked towards the Dark Guild.

XxX

"HELLO! ANYONE HOME!" Naruto yelled as he blew the door of its hinges. "Oho… There are a lot more of you then I thought there would be." Naruto honestly said as he walked into the room. The members of Asuras Wing created a large circle at the centre of the room, but they left a gap for someone to walk into the centre.

"I didn't expect a brat." One of the three men in the centre of the circle spoke up. He was incredibly thin man wearing a potato sack rather than clothes. "I was told that one of the Ten Wizard Saints were here."

"It's not him." The man to his right spoke next. This man wore a yukata and had long black hair reaching his knees. A sword dangled around his waist.

"Jose Porla from Phantom Lord was supposed to be here as well." The man on the left wore a stray jacket and white pants which highlighted his bright orange hair.

"The Master stayed back with the survivors. We thought you would be going after them." A lie. Jose was sneaking around from a different entrance trying to find as much information as he could about Asuras Wing. He wasn't sure whether all three faces would be here or not, so gaining information for the council would prove useful. It was Naruto's job to buy time.

"Heh? Do you think that low of us? We had a party prepared for one of the Ten Wizard Saints and everything." The potato sack man seemed a little disappointed. "Oh well… My name is…"

"I'm sorry but what is up with your look? You are wearing a potato sack. A FUCKING POTATO SACK!"

The man seemed a little taken back, but answered nevertheless. "It works well with my magic. Anyway my name is…"

"Hold on a sec. What could your magic possibly be that wearing a potato sack help? It seems a little stupid to me." Naruto was legitimately asking the question, but was intentionally annoying the man who he thought was a 'face'.

The man was getting annoyed. "My magic uses the smell from the sack. Anyway my name is…"

"Can't you use the smell of something else? Like it's a potato sack. You look like you're homeless. I'll feel bad if I have to fight you."

"Doesn't matter my name is…"

"IT'S A FUCKING POTATO SACK!"

"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" The potato man (Naruto never got his name) disappeared from Naruto's sight after yelling. Naruto felt a kick collide with his back sending him into the circle. The circle closed up and the potato man was standing in front of Naruto.

"AS I WAS SAYING. MY NAME IS…"

"If you haven't noticed yet I really don't care." Naruto said as he stood back up. "Are you the three 'faces'?"

"So you know about us. Impressive." The man in the stray jacket answered Naruto's question with a kind smile. "My name is Yuusuke. And this samurai here is Kuwabara. We are Master's 'arms'."

"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Naruto." Naruto bowed slightly as you would when meeting a higher ranked person than yourself. Something he completely ignored when talking to the potato man. And it was clearly pissing him off.

"Getting angry at a child. That is quite sad." The samurai names Kuwabara spoke as he drew his sword. No emotion rose to his face, but the potato man was silently crying. "Naruto-kun. We mean nothing personal by this, but we will kill you here then go and kill Jose Porla."

"Let me ask you two things first if that's okay." Naruto said as he bent his knees taking a stance. From what he was told, the 'face' should be a high S-Class, but not quite SS-Class level of strength, and his two 'arms' should be low S-Class. Naruto had no chance of winning this fight, so he had to buy some time.

"Sure." Yuusuke had kept his kind smile on the whole time. "I will answer any question, but as soon as you do you will be attacked."

"That's fine." That wasn't fine. There was only one thing that Naruto could do. "First question, are all of the men in this circle members of your guild?"

"Yes. Every single one, so off target spells won't hurt any innocents, if that is what you are worried about." Kuwabara answered the question and readied his blade at the same time.

"Okay one more question. Give me a second." Naruto said as he closed his eyes. He started to speak under his breath so he couldn't be heard. " _Darkness that dwells within me. Become my weapon. Let my pain become their pain. Let my torment, torment them._ "

"It seems as though he is chanting a spell. Should we stop him?" Kuwabara waited for orders, but he was ready to kill.

"We did say two questions. Let's see what he can do." Yuusuke asked. Naruto's gamble seemed to have paid off.

"Hey. Aren't I meant to be the boss?" Potato man asked. His character seemed to be getting ignored.

" _Create for me a nightmare. A never ending nightmare for my enemies to fear. Let this nightmare be the place of their demise._ **Black Battlefield**." Naruto finished his chant and a large magic circle formed with Naruto at the centre. The audience moved back so they stayed outside the circle. The magic circle soon turned into a circle made of orange darkness. "This is my battlefield. Step into it and my attacks can come from the ground. Thank you for letting me chant this spell."

"Oh no problem." Yuusuke seemed to be sickingly sweet. "You still have one question before we kill you."

"You said that this fight with me wasn't personal. What about the village? Was that personal?" Naruto asked the three men who were in his battlefield.

"No." Yuusuke's sweet smile remained on his face as he answered. "That was strictly business." With that Kuwabara leapt towards Naruto swinging his sword.

"You disgust me." Naruto lifted both of his arms. A wall of orange darkness rose shielding Naruto from the strike. " **Black Battlefield** is a spell that cannot be used in combat. The cast time is too long and for the duration your eyes need to be closed and your body unmoving. It is completely useless in an actual battle so it normally isn't used."

"What's your point?" Potato man appeared behind Naruto and launched a kick at him which missed as Naruto ducked under. Yuusuke was still smiling from a distance.

"Just that only Master Jose has managed to hurt me when I was using this spell. No one else in Phantom Lord is strong enough. Good luck killing me." Naruto said as he launched an uppercut into the air. This produced a spear of darkness underneath the potato man, but that also hit nothing.

"So that's how it works." Yuusuke was watching the fight with intense eyes until just then. He was analysing the spell Naruto used. "We can either break through his shields or be faster than the brat. He has been training with a Wizard Saint so both will be difficult. Let us do this."

Naruto realised that the other two were only testing him, and now they stood beside Yuusuke as he was telepathically relaying a plan.

"If Master was here, you guys would put up an interesting fight. Even though you would lose in the end, it would be fun to watch." Naruto said as he closed his eyes again. The edge of the circle started to form spears that shot out. These orange darkness spears pierced through most of the surrounding audience.

"What the..?" The men who had escaped being punctured jumped further away from the circle.

"You don't fight fair do you Naruto-kun?" Yuusuke mockingly commented.

"You attacked a village full of people who can't fight. You have no right to comment about me being fair." Of course Naruto felt bad for doing a cheap shot like that, but he couldn't fight the three of them alone. He had to run.

"Except I already knew you would do that." Yuusuke sweet smile changed into a mocking smile as a magic circle appeared on his eye. Suddenly the only thing Naruto could see was the roof and standing above him was the potato man.

"What just happened?" Naruto rolled backwards straight into Kuwabara whose sword was crackling with lightning. "This isn't good." Naruto quickly raised a darkness shield, but that was sliced through giving Naruto a nasty cut across his chest.

"You cannot win this Naruto-kun." Another magic circle appeared on Yuusuke's eye. Naruto somehow ended up flying towards the ceiling. He smashed through it and continued to rise.

"I don't understand." Naruto felt a fist dig into his back, it was potato man who somehow got behind him. He was sent flying towards Kuwabara who was still on the ground. His sword was sheathed, but a magic circle appeared at the handle.

" **Rapid Draw.** " Kuwabara intended to pull out his sword and sent a wave of lightning towards Naruto who couldn't dodge. Except a black tendril shot from the ground and wrapped itself around Kuwabara's sword forcing it to stay sheathed. Naruto had finally landed.

"Impressive." Yuusuke commented as he watched Naruto drag up five spears towards Kuwabara. However Kuwabara suddenly disappeared and potato man fell onto Naruto's head with a kick. Naruto raised a cushion of darkness to protect his face.

"This fucking hurts." Naruto picked himself up. He still didn't understand what was happening.

"This is why you are still a brat. Some soon to be S-Class mage you are." The voice came from behind the trio.

"You must be Jose." The potato man turned around ready to fight. "My name is…"

"I see you have been taking care of my guild member." Jose walked towards the three of them without a care.

"STOP FUCKING DOING THAT!" The potato man disappeared, and reappeared behind Jose. Jose bent forward slightly to avoid a punch. He then stepped to the side to avoid a kick. It didn't look like he was even trying.

"You turn something you smell into speed. However it is only single burst movements so it is predictable. I don't know why you chose a potato bag though. Is it some kind of weird fetish thing?" Jose continued to walk forward dodging all of potato man's attacks with minimal movement.

" **Rapid Draw**." Kuwabara once again tried to draw his sword, but managed to succeed this time. A large arc of lightning was sent straight towards Jose. The potato man moved away. Jose just yawned as he punched the air sending a pulse of purple darkness through the arc and straight at Kuwabara, who barely managed to dodge the attack.

"I was watching Naruto's fight through one of my shades, so I know all about you swordsman-san. Your skill comes from your swordsmanship, not your magic. But you aren't the problem here." Jose continued to walk forward until he was standing in front of Yuusuke. "Go on. Freeze my time."

"Oh so you were watching. It doesn't mean you can avoid it though." Yuusuke had stopped smiling. It seems like he was finally getting serious. "You have seriously underestimated us if you think that was our full strength."

"I know that the 'face' has more to offer, but his 'arms' are nothing." Jose smiled as he stated to release his magic. His hair and clothes blew upwards as if a wind was rising from below. Yuusuke had to tense up to prevent himself from falling backwards. "THIS IS FOR THE VILLAGE YOU DESTROYED!"

Naruto deactivated his battlefield and jumped to one of the far corners of the room. He did not want to get involved when Jose was fighting. The potato man instantly moved towards the corpses. He ripped off some of their shoes and shoved their feet in his nose.

"You're joking right? That's disgusting." Naruto couldn't help but comment. But the speed he showed right after was amazing. He suddenly appeared underneath Jose's chin and launched an upper cut. However Jose punched him in the face before he could. The potato man was sent flying into the wall of the guild.

"IS THAT ALL?!" Jose yelled as he watched a magic circle appear on Yuusuke's eye.

"STUPID FOOL! KUWABARA NOW!" Yuusuke yelled as he jumped back. Kuwabara charged forward with his sword drawn.

" **Rapid Strike.** " Kuwabara quickly jabbed his sword forward around 60 times a second, each of which sent out a small lightning bolt towards he motionless Jose.

"IS THAT ALL!?"Jose yelled as he sent out a ghost looking darkness towards Kuwabara. The lightning all attracted to the ghost which then wrapped itself around Kuwabara's neck.

"How can you move?" Yuusuke said in disbelief. Jose sent Kuwabara flying towards Yuusuke, forcing them both into the back wall beside their Master who just stood up.

Jose stepped forward revealing a shade was behind him. The shade must have taken the Yuusuke's hit for him. "This was pathetic. Although I give you credit for your teamwork. Most SS-Class mages would lose against you. You were just unlucky I was your opponent. **Dead Wave.** " Jose released a massive beam of purple darkness towards the trio. A massive explosion rang out; the entire building shook and started to collapse around them. Naruto quickly ran outside, while Jose casually walked.

"Can you not destroy a building while I am still inside? I mean common." Naruto complained as Jose somehow made it out unharmed.

"I don't think a bloody mess like you can complain. How could you lose to them?"

"What do you mean? You just said they could fight SS-Class. I'm barely S-Class."

"Only when they catch you in frozen time. That is a strong move that one." Jose acknowledged their strength, but didn't hold back himself. He had no mercy for Dark Guilds. "But you should have noticed. What did you think his eye was doing?"

"I don't know. I only saw it twice." Naruto complained. "You were watching from afar so you weren't affected by it. It was weird; suddenly ending up somewhere you weren't half a second ago."

The two of them continued to bicker as they walked back to the village. This was always what it is like after a big fight. They were filled with a high from victory and forgot about everything but the fight they just completed.

From the nearby tree line, a shadow stood looking over the wreckage. He chuckled to himself. "They were stronger that I thought they would be. I should have interfered. I wonder who is still alive."

"Just me, Master." Yuusuke got onto one knee beneath the man. "Why wasn't I permitted to realise my restraint?"

"You fought as an 'arm', not as a 'feather'." The man said as he turned away from the wreckage.

"Jose had completely searched the base before appearing. Was there any information on you in there Master?" Yuusuke still hadn't got off his knee.

"No. They still have no idea about Asuras 'wing'."

XxX

Naruto was walking through the burned village alone. Jose had gone to talk with the villagers to tell them that the threat was gone, and that Rune Knights would soon appear and look after the survivors. He was deep within his own thoughts. He had stood no chance against the three of them, yet Jose won without breaking a sweat. Was he really so weak?

Suddenly Naruto was hit with a sense of vertigo and suddenly found himself in a familiar sewer.

"Wait what the? How did I end up here?" Naruto asked the giant fox.

"I called you here." Kurama spoke as if what he was saying was obvious. "Now listen brat. You are not weak, Jose is just overpoweringly strong. I feel as though these wizard saints are at the same level as a Kage, the same level that your father was at."

"Is that all? Did you think I don't already know how strong Master is? I don't need cheering up from you." Naruto walked towards the entrance to this room in an attempt to leave.

"Impatient brat." Kurama clicked his tongue in annoyance. "What I was going to say is that if you learn to use chakra as well as the magic you can use, you will reach a higher level than your Master."

"Yeah yeah, you already said that. That's not why I am upset at all." Naruto walked through the doorway, but stopped to yell something over his shoulder. "Don't call me here for no reason. It's a waste of my time."

"What else could he be upset about?" Kurama asked himself as he lay down for a nap.

Naruto continued to walk through the village. He was thinking less about the fight he just watched and more about the conversation after. But before he could get emotional again, he saw a kid sitting on the ground. It was the white-haired boy from before. He was sitting against a mound of rock that Naruto made before.

"Yo." Naruto waved as he saw the kid. "Do you need my help burying her?"

The two of them dug a grave a good distance from the village and Naruto carried the corpse there, burying it without magic. The child didn't utter a single word the whole time. By the time they had finished burying the corpse, and building a small gravestone the sun had long since set.

"What are you going to do now?" Naruto asked the child, not expecting a response. "I guess you don't speak. That's fine, as long as you listen. If you have no place to go then come back with me. I'll look after you." The child looked up confused. "It's up to you. I'll be with the village for the night anyway, so come and tell me your answer tomorrow."

Naruto started to walk away. It was quite obvious why he wanted to look after this kid. Before he could get too far a small hand grabbed his jacket from behind.

"George…" Naruto turned around when he heard the boy's voice. It turns out he could speak, but didn't.

"Can I take that as a yes?" The boy nodded his head in response. "Alright, let's go George. I'll introduce you to Master."

The two of them walked towards the village survivor's camp.

XxX

The relationship Naruto and Jose had changed drastically the next year. Jose had attended a meeting for the Wizard Saints, and lost in a battle against Makarov, which drastically hurt his pride. Soon after Makarov's guild Fairy Tail started becoming more and more well known because a few of their elite members. Phantom Lord was starting to change, and Naruto wasn't happy with that. He wasn't the only one either, over the years quite a few of Phantom Lord's S-Class mages left the guild. Naruto however didn't. He stayed with the guild and completed jobs like any other member. Eventually he became an S-Class member of the guild and shot up in both fame and power.

George travelled everywhere with Naruto. It didn't take long for George to join Phantom Lord and attempt to learn magic. Unfortunately for George, he had absolutely no skill in magic. So he took up a weapon to assist him in battle while focusing only on very basic magic. The two of them destroyed many dark guilds by request of the Magic Council which earned Naruto the title of 'The Phantom of Ruin'. They searched every wreckage created by the dark guilds for survivors, and made sure they were treated. And they took almost every child they found to an orphanage.

Naruto training with Kurama continued for a couple of years. When Naruto was finally at a skilled level of chakra manipulation, Kurama started to ignore Naruto again. Kurama had completed his task of teaching Naruto chakra so he would weakening the seal over time, while giving Naruto a fighting chance against the masked man. He didn't know how strong the man in the mask was, but if it was who he thought then Naruto would need an actual chakra trainer to teach him if he's going to have a chance. And so Naruto continues to live his life in Earthland, while waiting for the perils from his original world, the Elemental Nations to catch up to him.


	2. Years Later

Hello by lovely readers. Welcome to the second chapter of Phantom Ninja.

I realised when I proof read this chapter that I swap between using requipt and exquipt, and I am sure that there is no difference. I will try to be consistent from now on, but if I'm not this is so you guys know that they are in fact the same thing.

Anyways, please read and review. Let me know what you're thinking so we can make this story better together.

Disclaimer: Neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto belong to me. HOW SORROWFUL

* * *

"Eeeeeeh… I don't wanna…" Naruto rolled over in his bed. He was now 19 years old and had longer hair than 7 years ago.

"GET UP!" A five year old girl with black hair tied into a ponytail was jumping up and down on Naruto.

"Five more minutes, Vivi-chan …" Naruto rolled over pushing the girl off him. The girl's black skirt fluttered as she fell. Her green hoodie covered her head, even though she never wears it up. She also wore a pair of green and white striped long socks.

"NARUCHI! GET UP!" After yelling, Vivi stood back up and took a deep breath. "HAAAA!" She yelled as he punched Naruto. If she was a normal five year old girl then nothing would have happened. Except the Phantom Lord Guild stamp on her left hand showed that she wasn't a normal girl. Naruto was sent flying through the wall ending up tumbling down the staircase and ending up in the main hall of the guild.

"HEY! WHAT KIND OF WAY IS THAT TO WAKE SOMEONE UP!?" Naruto yelled as he picked himself up. He quickly exquiped his normal clothes on so he wasn't surrounded by his guild members wearing orange pyjamas. He now wore a normal white t-shirt with long dark brown pants held up by a lighter brown belt. The fingerless gloves he wore, matched the colour of his pants. He also had a fur collared orange overcoat, which had stich marks all along it to represent his previous battles. He left it unbuttoned as it fluttered in the wind.

"You weren't waking up." Vivi held her arms on her hip. Naruto shook his head at the little girl and decided to get some food. The Phantom Lord guild members who were currently in the main hall were all laughing at the exchange between the two.

You see, they were currently in the Guild Headquarters of Phantom Lord which was just outside of Oak town. This building was like any other guild hall, it had a recreational area, a wall plastered with jobs, and an office for the Guild Master Jose. However unlike your average guild, Phantom Lord was bigger. The sheer number of guild members they had made it hard to keep track of the exact numbers, and so a system was created. The Headquarters would only be filled with the best. Then there were Area Guild halls which had their own Area Master, they were in charge of a certain section and were filled with the better than average members. Then there were a bunch of minor guild halls with no one in charge, but were there for meeting up and taking jobs only. They were also places that a Phantom Lord guild member would feel welcome no matter what. Except for the Headquarters that is. The Headquarters is also a home to anyone the master or any S-ranker considers worthy to live there, including Naruto and whoever else you'd see here on a typical morning.

"Hahaha. Being bullied again Naruto-chwaaaan?" A man with half white, half black hair laughed from a table across the room. He wore a very ninja like orange reddish outfit with a reddish fur lining. A chain mesh covered the visible parts of his skin. A sheathed katana rested against the chair he sat on. This was Totomaru.

"Yeah yeah. The annoyance has gotten me up." Naruto jokingly glared at the girl who stuck her tongue out in protest.

"Vivi-chan was just helping, but Naruto-kun doesn't understand. How sorrowfull." The incredibly tall and bulky man sat on the same table as Totomaru started crying. This man wore a green hat and a high collared loose green jacket, with a purple stole over it. Under it, he wore a loose yellow shirt, and loose pants. An odd red necklace hung from his neck. His eyes were covered by a white blindfold. This was Aria.

"Helping how? I was sleeping dammit!" Naruto complained even more, and begun walking to the kitchen area hoping to get someone to make something for him to eat.

"Master Jose requests your presence Naruto-sama." The last man on their table spoke next. His spikey green hair was tamed to point directly up. He was fiddling with his tiny moustache. He wore a monocle on his right eye. His brown suit had its elbows connected by an unusual cape. This was Sol.

These three are members of the Element 4 and they are some of Phantom Lords current S-ranks.

"Dammit… I just wanna eat…" Naruto grumbled to himself. Naruto poked his head into the kitchen to see a single person there. "Heeey George. Please make me something to eaaaaat…"

The now a lot taller man George looked up at Naruto, ignored him and went back to making his own food. He now wore a black sleeveless vest and black pants, and he had a slightly curved sheathed sword.

"Eeeeeh… Comeon Georgie. You know you love me." Naruto complained as he started begging his white haired companion, who simply ignored him. Naruto then turned to everyone who was sitting in the hall. "Christoph? Darcy? Boze? Jessie? Lil P? Sue? Vivi? Come on Vivienne-chan please." Everyone stuck to their food and ignored the pleading blond. Naruto knew they were all playing around with him, but dammit he was hungry. "Fine! I'll make something myself when I get back." Naruto huffed and walked off. Everyone else there laughed at the blond's antics.

They all knew he was playing around. Naruto was easily the second strongest in the guild by a major portion. Jose and Naruto held the strongest positions, and then Gajeel was a world beneath them with the Element 4 and George shortly behind. There were also a few people others who Naruto knew who technically did not associate with Phantom Lord, even though they received jobs from the guild. It was unknown how strong these members were.

So Naruto was a well-known member of all branches of the guild. Everyone knew his name face and his extravagant joking personality and quite a few of their names and faces, which none of the other high rankers did. This personality didn't quite belong with how Phantom Lord's members are. They are usually cruel and sadistic, in fact that's the most sought out criteria since the guild creation, however long ago that was. Quite a few of the members put on that fake attitude so they can be a member of the strongest guild.

There was a time where this changed. When Jose first became Guild Master, the place livened up, wasn't so bad. After a certain Wizard Saint's meeting, Jose became more closed off and the guild relapsed back to its original state of being unpleasant. Naruto was essentially the only strong member of the guild who remained from that time. The rest of the S-rankers came after that, as well as most of those who live in headquarters.

Naruto knocked on the door to the master's office. "You called for me Master."

"Aah. Naruto, you're up." Jose didn't look up from his paperwork. He looked pretty much the same as he did 7 years ago.

"A lot earlier then I would have liked." Naruto grumbled to himself while he stood waiting for Jose to finish what he was doing. Running a big guild like this was hard, especially with all the master only paperwork that he needed to complete. When he finished he finally looked up at the blond as he started yawning. Jose opened his desk, pulled out a sheet of paper and stuck it out for Naruto who grabbed it.

"This is a quest from a very very rich client." Naruto quickly skimmed the quest. Some rich guy wanted his missing daughter found. The subtext was quite obvious though. The daughter ran away from home and the father wants his daughter to understand she can never truly escape.

"Yeah well. I'll be busy on my own mission. I'm leaving for that soon." Naruto handed the paper back to Jose.

"I need you on this one." Jose stated. "If we can get this client to continue using us, we will have furthered our revenue, giving us the chance to expand outside of Fiore."

"I still don't see why you still want to expand outwards. Into other countries, there isn't a precedent for a cross country guild and you're going to piss off a lot of people including the Magic Council for an unnecessary power grab. We are the biggest guild by far, why do you still seek more?" Naruto argue back. Being a part of the guild his whole life, he had leant many things about running a guild.

"Yet Fairy Tail is still spoken about as out equal." The anger could be heard in Jose's voice.

"That's because they have quality not quantity. They actually focus on getting their members stronger through friendly competition between each other. We've had this discussion before." Naruto rolled his eyes. "You changed, the guild changed, and all of those well-known members we had, decided to leave since they no longer wanted to work for you. Stop with this silly ambition of growing outward and start focusing on the individuals who work with us, then maybe you will be Makarov's peer."

"I AM STRONGER THEN MAKAROV!" Jose banged his hands on his desk angrily. "And you made one mistake! They do not work with me, they work FOR me! As do you Naruto. You will not question my motives and goals. You will however, complete the mission I assign you."

"I'll do it when I get back." Naruto waved his hand as he turned his back to the master.

"Do not turn your back on me, boy."

"You turned your back on me first." Naruto got his last words in before closing the door, leaving a very angry Jose behind him.

XxX

"You know you didn't even have to come with me. You should have stayed with George." Naruto complained to the little girl who stood beside him. It had been two days since they left for the mission, and Naruto was currently packing up his tent.

"I WANTED TO COME WITH YOU!" Vivi jumped forward trying to punch Naruto.

"Stop that." Naruto jumped over the girl and went straight back to packing the tent "We have to be there today."

"Just leave me in the tent and run." Vivi grinned. Naruto bought a tent a few years ago. It was a magical tent that held a pocket dimension the size of a house. It was a rather rare piece of magical equipment, but Naruto thought it was well worth the price he paid. It was where he and whoever he was with at the time camped out on the way to and from missions.

"Not a chance you brat." Naruto once again dived to the side to avoid an attack. "Seriously, stop that." Vivi had again tried to hit him. She pouted as she looked away. She crossed her arms in the most adorable way possible and Naruto was struggling. "Don't try to be cute either. I won't let my guard down with you. This is why I wanted you to stay with George. You don't try to hit him. I said don't try to be cute… dammit get in the tent." The girl grinned excitedly as she ran up and hugged Naruto, then ran into the tent. Naruto just shook his head at the girl's weird mood swings. Sometimes she acts like the 5 year old she is and sometimes she appears acts as an angry almost teenager.

While inside the tent, Vivi would be comfortable as gravity doesn't change nor does it sway, so Naruto could use his magic freely. He wasn't very good at them, but he knew Teleportation Magic and Speed Magic. He could teleport objects incredible distances no problem, but teleporting himself was harder. His Speed Magic was incomplete, but he figured out how to boost that with his chakra, both fortifying his body to be able to stand the speeds, and increasing the speed itself. Using these two, long distance travel took a lot less time. He would teleport over anything that would take too long too running over, and then he would run the rest of the way.

After around an hour, Naruto finally arrived at a village. When he got close, he opened the tent and got Vivi to come. She did so climbing onto his shoulder and making that her seat.

The village was a group of wood built houses closely compact. There was no need for space in between since there was nothing they could grow nearby. The houses were lined up in a square with a stone plaza in the middle. This was a very small community, where they all lived as one, had sent out a job request to one of the biggest guild.

As the two of them approached the plaza, they saw a crowd gathered around the centre. Naruto cleared his throat, and when he was close enough he called out. "Hello there. Who was it that sent out the request?"

"That would be that idiot." A man around 70 years old pointed at a teenage girl. The man wore worn down clothes just like the rest of the people around him, except one. All the men wore similar shorts and shirt. It was clear that the village didn't have a lot of money.

"That's not what you should be calling your granddaughter you old fart. I told you before there isn't a problem." The girl had black hair that matched her grandfathers, which was tied up in a ponytail. Similar to all the women she wore a worn down dress, except one. Now that Naruto thought about it there was something seriously out of place. In the centre of the group was a cart filled with luggage.

"Well you shouldn't have sent the same request I did. What good does having two guilds here do when we can barely afford one?" The old man who was the oldest in the village questioned his granddaughter, who just looked away shyly.

"Hey hey, there's no need to fight." Naruto tried to calm the situation down. "Let's start with telling me what is going on." Vivi still sat on his shoulders.

"It appears that they sent out two different requests and we both accepted." The girl who stood out said as she reached out her hand. "Fairy Tail's Erza Scarlet." Her long hair was the same colour as her last name, and her brown eyes stared straight into Naruto's. Her Heart-Kreuz armour was custom made so it would fit well with her blue skirt and black boots.

"Titania is it?" Naruto eyed the blue guild mark on her left bicep, as he reached his hand out. "Naruto Uzumaki from Phantom Lord." With the mention of his guild, Erza's eyes widened. As soon their hands separated, Erza was taking a visibly defensive stance. It was well known that Phantom Lord's Master, absolutely hated Fairy Tail and that view was spread amongst the members.

"Vivienne Uzumaki." Vivi quickly prevented the situation from getting any worse, by introducing herself.

"Hey, I never said you could take my name." Naruto complained as he picked the girl up off his shoulders.

"But you both have a last name. I want one too." The girl pouted.

"George doesn't have one. Also why would you take mine? I don't have a brat like you in my family." The girl stuck her tongue out before she stuck her hand out to shake Erza's hand. Erza gently smiled as she shook the girl's hand.

"I didn't expect this. What an interesting place to meet." Erza turned back to the villagers. "There is no need to worry. I know you have saved quite a bit to afford the money for the request so I will be happy to go without the payment." The villagers seemed a little surprised by this.

"Wow. You're really cool aren't you?" Naruto applauded Erza's generosity. There was no sarcasm in his voice.

"But…" The girl from before started to protest before she was stopped by her grandfather.

"We cannot let you do that. That would dishonour our village's name. My name is Olaf, and I am the village elder. My granddaughter's name is Elana. She will look after you while you are here. As for payment we will have to negotiate if that is alright with both of you."

"Eeeeeh… That sounds boring." Naruto started clearing out his ear. "Elana-san. Do you mind showing me around?" The girl eagerly nodded and directed Naruto to walk away from the crowd.

Once they were out of earshot, Erza spoke, although she intended to say it internally. "Not quite what I expected from The Phantom of Ruin."

"Naruchi is like that. Someone else gave him that name." Vivi happily spoke up to her elder mage. She had heard of Titania and hoped that she would meet her eventually. Vivi liked being around strong female mages.

"Well you aren't quite what I expected either." Erza left an intentionally vague statement before talking to the village elder again. "Olaf-san, I understand that you believe this will hurt your village's name but as a Fairy Tail I cannot let you sell almost everything they have for an easy mission like this."

Vivi started giggling. Olaf spoke again. "But Erza-san. We cannot let…"

"I will not be taking any payment. DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!" Olaf was over 70 years old. He had been through many things in his life. One time when he was young he had to fend off a beast twice his size with nothing but his hands. But in this very moment he was the most scared he had ever been in his 70 years of life. Erza Scarlet was not someone to mess with.

"No… no problem…" Olaf took a couple of steps back.

"Good." Erza then looked at Vivi. "What was so funny?"

"Nothing." A mischievous smile was on her face. "Just Naruchi said the same thing you did when we organised the mission."

"What?" Olaf seemed confused. "Elana never told me that."

"Hmmm…" Erza looked at where Naruto had walked off to. "I might have to rethink my opinion of Phantom. Anyway, take my luggage to one of the rooms, then you will brief me on the mission."

"Hey Erza." Vivi tugged on Erza's skirt. "Why do you have so much luggage?"

"DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!"

XxX

"This is where we grow our food. Thanks to this we have less to worry about." Elana had shown Naruto where certain notable features around the village were, such as cliff faces, a mine, and surprisingly a patch of lush fertile crops.

"How can this happen? Do you have a mage in the village?" Naruto was honestly amazed. Magic was the only possible way for a desert to be fertile; this made Naruto excited at the possibility of meeting the mage responsible.

"No we don't. We are all tailors and miners. This was done by a wandering mage around two years ago." Elana casual answered did not match Naruto's over the top reaction.

"TWO YEARS AGO. AND IT'S STILL ACTIVE. That is some seriously strong magic. Like at least Ten Wizard Saint level." Naruto had never met anyone capable of such a feat.

"Well… The mage was a tree. If that makes a difference…"

"A tree?"

"Yes a tree." Naruto intentionally pretended he had never heard that and changed the topic.

"So why is a tailor and mining based village such as yours wearing such cheap rags?" Topic change = success.

"Well…" Elana seemed a little hesitant. "We sold all of our good clothes, and made these rags so we could afford to pay for the request while having enough to live on. These S-Class quests are really expensive. This food is good and all, but we still need water."

"So you sold everything. But I had help teleporting that communication lacrima to you so we could change the payment to that order I gave you." Naruto seemed a little sad for the village. "But that's fine then. Erza said she wasn't going to take the payment."

"Yeah I guess. But now it seems like we're getting help for free."

"And what's wrong with that?" Naruto's question took Elana by surprise. "People can be selfish if they want. Right now we are letting you be selfish so just accept it." After a brief silence a cry could be heard.

"NARUCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! ERZA IS SCARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Vivi was running towards Naruto, while Erza was following behind her in a panic.

"Hahaha. She can't be that scary." Naruto would soon find out how wrong he was.

"But but… I asked her a question…" Tears were forming in her eyes as Naruto bent down and held her. "and and…. She got angry…"

"Au, um… aaah… Wha…. What do I do? I have to apologise. Apologise, that's it." Erza stepped forward and clasped Naruto on the shoulder. "Hit me."

"What?" Naruto stood back up in confusion. Vivi ran and hid behind Naruto's leg.

"I have to atone for scaring her. Hit me." Naruto looked at her face for any sign of this being a joke. But she was dead serious.

"That's stupid. I'm not going to hit you." Naruto tried to pull Erza's hand off. He couldn't her grip strength was amazing.

"Please hit me. I need to make up for it." Erza gripped tigher.

"No I'm not going to…"

"HIT ME!" Erza's face darkened and she yelled. Naruto had suddenly disappeared leaving Vivi hiding behind nothing.

""Eh?"" Vivi and Erza both spoke in confusion.

"ELANA-SAN! ERZA-SAN IS SCARY!" Naruto was clutching the back of Elana's skirt as he hid behind her. Elana just stood there with a bright red blush.

"Ah… DON'T LEAVE ME OUT HERE WITH HER!" Vivi yelled as she ran behind Elana and fought with Naruto for her dress.

At this point Erza was completely lost. She had no idea what to do now. It took Elana a good ten minutes to calm the two children clinging to her dress down.

At that point Erza apologised. "I…I'm sorry." She was still really surprised by what had happened. There were two reasons for this. The first was that Naruto's actions were exactly the same as a five year olds. And the second was that Naruto had somehow escaped from her grasp without her noticing. She wasn't exactly paying attention, but that was still an amazing accomplishment.

"Haha. I guess I overreacted." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"You are supposed to protect me when I get scared, not run away." Vivi was still protesting against Naruto's actions, but then again she couldn't blame him.

"Protect yourself." Naruto looked away disinterested, but then quickly stepped to the side. "Was that a full power punch?"

"Tch…" Vivi clicked her tongue

"HEY DON'T CLICK YOUR TONGUE! I COULD HAVE DIED IF I WASN'T WATCHING!" Erza ignored Naruto's comment assuming it was him playing around.

"Umm… Erza-sama." Elana was now beside Erza and tried to strike up a conversation.

"Erza is fine." Erza smiled gently as she watched Naruto and Vivi play around.

"Are you sure you won't take the payment? I mean you came all the way out here…"

"No need to worry about that. One of my armourers use the minerals from this mine, and that is payment enough."

"Both of you aren't taking the reward… Is it a guild thing to be so generous?" Vivi had bitten onto Naruto's leg and wouldn't let go. He was trying to pull her off.

"Naruto did?" Erza was slightly taken aback. "I would never guess that he was a member of Phantom Lord." Elana tilted her head slightly in confusion, so Erza continued. "Phantom Lord may have just as much of a reputation as Fairy Tail, but the way they go about things is vastly different than us. It's not that they do anything wrong, it's just that they focus only on self-gain. I don't have much respect for them, but maybe I should rethink that stance."

"It's not good to judge an entire guild because of a few members." Naruto's words made Erza slightly embarrassed for speaking so freely where he could hear. Naruto had finally pulled Vivi off and dropped her on the ground. Vivi instantly pouted and looked away. "I hardly think Fairy Tail is full of destructive maniacs just because a few of you make it to the papers. You should meet the people first then understand them before making such judgements." Naruto never denied that his guild was a selfish one. And Erza couldn't deny that her guild was a destructive one. But that did not mean that every member was.

"We should go back and get briefed on the mission." Erza stated forcefully. She always took control of the situation.

"Good idea. Let's go Vivi-chan."

XxX

The entire village sat at table's set up in the plaza for lunch. A giant tent was set up so they could eat in the shade. The food was passed around the tables and everyone took their share before passing it on. The food was rather bland, but Naruto didn't get the chance to eat any. Naruto was tied up to the centre pole holding up the tent. If Naruto tried to get out, the tent would fall ruining it for everyone else.

"So why can't I eat anything?" Naruto asked the nearest table. Erza, Vivi, Elana, and Olaf sat at that table eating peacefully.

"I told you already Naruchi. If you eat they won't have any food for a month." Vivi didn't bother looking back at Naruto and continued eating.

"I told you that I would eat just enough… I'll die from starvation at this rate… Do you want me to die?"

"That doesn't seem too bad."

"WHAT KIND OF FIVE YEAR OLD ARE YOU!?"

"Don't worry. You can go catch your own food when we are finished."

"THIS ISN'T NORMAL! WHY ARE YOU ALL SILENTLY ACCEPTING THIS!?" Naruto was in tears. He was hungry. Olaf just shrugged. It didn't really concern him. Elana was trying her hardest to resist bringing Naruto some food. Vivi had told her it would be better if he got his own food. Erza didn't find what was happening unusual at all.

"I give up…" Naruto's body went limp. "Let me off so I can get my own food."

"Anyway, Olaf-san. I already know most of the details, but can you please explain to us the problem your village has." Erza had finished eating and decided that it was time for the briefing. Naruto was now being completely ignored by everyone.

"Once a month on the full moon, a group of demons attack our village. Attack isn't the right word, they terrorise our village. They raid our houses and take everything of value. They occasionally beat some of our men when we resist, but they mostly avoiding dealing serious harm to us people. The worst thing they did was burn one of the houses down. Luckily for us, they haven't found out hidden stockpile, nor have they touched the patch of lush grass we have, so we have been able to survive. I don't understand why they do what they do, but our village is suffering because of it, so it needs to stop."

"Do you know where these demons live?" Erza asked.

"Yes we do. The third time they attacked, we realised that we were being targeted, so some of us followed them as they left. There is a cave around thirty minutes from here where they live."

"Okay good. Can someone take me there now?" Erza's sudden request surprised Olaf. It wasn't an unreasonable question, but the fact that their torment would end as soon as she was done made him rethink this choice. Was it really alright to not pay her anything for this?

"I can." Elana said after mustering her courage. She was a part of the group that followed the demons back.

"Are we sure these are demons and not beasts?" Naruto spoke up from his comfortable seat against the pole. "Beasts are a natural occurrence, and wouldn't randomly start attacking a village if they weren't aggravated first. Demons however don't work in groups and they all look unique. Is every single creature the same or are they all unique, and I don't mean minor features?"

"Uuum…" Elana had to think about this question for a bit, the rest of the village also weren't sure how to answer that. "Well… they're all the same, but not really. They're all on two goat like legs and have large bull like horns…"

"So monsters…" Naruto nodded his head.

"But they come in different sizes, you'll know when you see them." Olaf continued. "But that isn't all." Olaf said as he started taking his shirt off. What was underneath could only be described as eerie. There was a magic circle being carved into his skin.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" As soon as Vivi saw the marking she screamed. Naruto quickly wrapped his arms around her and prevented her from seeing past him.

"Don't worry. You're stronger now." Vivi's small arms clutched onto Naruto's chest as she shook. Erza noted that Naruto had gotten out of the ropes without tilting the pole. The rope wasn't even untied. Naruto spoke aloud for everyone else to hear. "That is a type of seriously bad demonic magic. It's almost completed. You are lucky you made the request when you did. Any later and you all would have died tonight."

The room fell silent. All that could be heard was the sobbing of the small girl in Naruto's arms.

XxX

Naruto, Vivi and Erza went out hunting. The closest animals were a good hour walk away, so Naruto and Erza ran with Vivi resting inside of the magic tent. As they ran they talked.

"How do you know about that magic circle? I've never seen one carved into someone's body before." Erza was running at her own pace, forcing Naruto to match hers.

"I've seen it before, then I did some research on it." Naruto would have preferred to run slower. "Dammit." Naruto clenched his teeth and stomped harder with his next step, cracking the ground underfoot. "She should have stayed with George."

"George? Would that be George the Phantom of Silence?" Erza asked curiously. She had never met him before, but heard of his strength and swordsmanship.

"Yeah…" Naruto looked down dejectedly, although his pace never slowed.

"This may be a little personal, but why did Vivi react like that?"

"I guess I should tell you. This request is not as simple as we originally thought. That is obviously a forbidden type of lost magic. It is commonly referred to as Sacrificial Magic, however the more accurate name would be Complexion Carve Magic. It was created by someone who wished to reach the domain of Zeref."

"Zeref the Black Wizard? The strongest Dark Mage in history? If this magic is that strong why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Because he failed. The only way to know whether a magic circle will work is to test it, especially since every carving has a different negative effect. So he always tested it on others before applying it to himself. His carvings went from fortifying a body, to absorbing souls. He created a carving that would absorb the magic in the surroundings and power up a person. However the person he tested it on had an aptitude for magic, and used it to kill the man."

"How do you know all of this?" Erza still had her doubts but she didn't want to miss anything, just in case.

"The man who escaped wrote a memoir of sorts, listing every carving he knew of and what the man did to him. The creators name was never listed. Anyway, I got my hands on that book by finding a descendant of the man and making a trade. Not important. The carving on Olaf's back is one that creates a suction force which absorbs all of the human souls in a large radius. Then it gets absorbed by the person with a different etch."

"People's soul…" Erza was a little scared about this. "Why have they waited for every full moon?"

"That I'm not sure about, but the same thing happened to the village Vivi-chan lived in." Erza pieced together the next part of the story. But before Naruto could continue, Vivi stuck her head out of the tent. She had regained her happy attitude, but she couldn't prevent an occasional tremble.

"Are we there yet?" Vivi asked as if she was bored.

"No. Get back in the tent, you're making it difficult to run." Naruto complained with a grin. You would never be able to guess that what they had just been talking about.

"No." Vivi came flying out of the tent and planted both of her feet on Naruto's face causing Naruto to let go of the tent and Vivi. Erza stopped running at the same time so she didn't get ahead. She was still breathing as calmly as when she started running.

"Ouch!" Naruto started rubbing his face. "Why would you do that? That was just mean."

"I'm bored. Erza-san play with me." Vivi jumped at Erza.

"Um… play what?" Erza wanted to continue the conversation with Naruto, but couldn't do it in front of Vivi.

"Let's spar." Vivi took a fighting stance excitedly.

"You don't want to do that Vivi-chan." Naruto warned.

"A spar? Are you sure?" Erza was a little concerned about fighting a young girl.

"You seriously shouldn't do that. She's an S-Class." Naruto's warning fell on deaf ears.

"Yeah, ready set…" Before she said go she quickly dashed forward and entered Erza's guard. She was really fast. "go" Erza's eyes widened as a tiny fist was launched at her face. Erza quickly jumped back to avoid the punch, but was once again surprised by Vivi's speed as she entered her guard again.

Vivi jumped, throwing a punch for Erza's chest, but was easily blocked by Erza's open palm. Vivi used the momentum of her attack to flip up into the air. At the climax of her arc, Vivi smiled as she rocketed towards Erza's head. Erza once again jumped backwards gaining distance between the two of them. Vivi's kick hit the ground and created a small crater.

"I didn't expect that. I apologise for underestimating you. I thought the Phantom of Chaos would be someone else. The three of you are rather infamous." Erza smiled as a wooden sword appeared in her hand.

"The whole infamous thing is actually a misunderstanding. I'm going to kill that 'COOOL COOOL' bastard." Naruto grumbled to himself. He wasn't exactly fond of his title.

Vivi once again charged forward at Erza at an incredible speed. Normal mages wouldn't be able to follow this, but Erza was far from normal. She was just caught off guard the first time. So she swung her sword at the girl, who threw a punch at the sword sending shards everywhere.

"Hmmm… so that's what it is." Erza let go of the wooden sword and reached her hand out. Vivi jumped back trying to avoid it, but Erza caught her anyway. Erza was much quicker than Vivi. Erza threw the small girl as hard as she could into the ground, making sure to let go of her a metre above the ground.

"You figured it out that quickly?" Naruto was surprised. He watched as Vivi slowed then landed on the ground softly.

"It wasn't too hard. Is that enough for you, Vivienne?" Erza stepped back to make sure she couldn't take a cheap shot from the ground.

"You're like super strong." Vivi looked up with sparkling eyes.

"To be honest you're really strong for your age. When I was five, I couldn't use magic." Erza gently smiled as she reached her hand out to help Vivi up.

"I told you she was S-Class. But Erza, you threw a five year old towards the ground with full force. You didn't even hold back." Naruto honestly feared what this woman would be capable of.

"She's fine though. I knew that her magic involved accelerating and decelerating. She has Acceleration Magic." Erza spoke as if it was obvious.

"But what if she wasn't at a level where she could slow herself down."

"Then she shouldn't have challenged me."

"NARUCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! ERZA IS SCARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

XxX

"Should we continue that conversation now?" Erza and Naruto sat on a bench pulled out of the tent. Naruto had found a giant pig, killed it, cooked it, and ate it in record time. Vivi and Erza both had a piece as well. Vivi was now in a deep sleep on Naruto's lap.

"Where should I start?" Naruto's face went serious. For some reason he trusted Erza.

"Vivienne's village. What happened to it, and how did she end up with you?"

"Hmmm…. I guess I have to start with Vivi-chan. Her mother died giving birth to her. This isn't exactly uncommon, but soon after than the only mage who lived in the village noticed that she had an unnaturally large amount of magic power within her. When she was 2, weird things started happening around her. Things would slow down or speed up. She had a natural affinity for Acceleration Magic. The mage helped her learn to control it, but it was too late. The village believed she was cursed or something. So the only person she had was the mage who cared for her. But he was incurably sick and died soon after. He kept it hidden from the rest of the village, so they also blamed that on the curse. Her life was a group of coincidences forming into a chain of bad luck.

"To further that point, on her 3rd birthday, a demon attacked. This was the first of monthly attacks that lasted eight months. Every month was a new demon. The only consistency was that a part of a carving was made into the village elders back. No one died but they started blaming Vivi-chan for it around the fifth month. And sometime between the seventh and eighth month they ran her out of the village.

"I just so happened to be nearby with George and we found her wandering in the middle of the forest, so I tried to talk to her. We couldn't leave her so I asked where she lived and we took her back to her village. It was actually a day's travel away, so we had no idea how long she had been walking for. We assumed she was lost, but when we got to the village we realised we were wrong. The village was burning to the ground and was filled with demons. The weird thing about these demons was that they were too similar.

"I soon realised that the people… no… corpses that the demons were munching on were empty. There was nothing left behind them, I don't know if you've seen a body, but you can still feel the person there for a month or so after. A residual life force. So the two of us killed every single one of them, without letting a single one escape. After that we searched for survivors and realised that there were none. But there was a large amount of magic power coming from a destroyed house. I fished through the wreckage and found a book.

"That mage I mentioned earlier kept a magical diary that wrote down everything that happens in the village. Not only that, but the book was a little special. The reason that the demons were different every month was because he had stored all of his power and mind in that lacrima to defend his village. He killed 7 different demons after death, but was jammed by someone for the last one. I read the book to find out what happened, and on the final page of the book he begged me to take care of Vivi-chan. As soon as I agreed the book turned to dust since there was no town to record anymore.

"Now this leaves three questions that I haven't yet answered. Who jammed the lacrima and is controlling the demons? How are they controlling so many demons? And what are these demons that should not exist?"

There was a long pause where Erza absorbed all of the information. Eventually she spoke. "Wow. How could they treat a child like that?" Naruto just shrugged. He didn't understand it either, but Naruto could tell that Erza was somehow relating herself to Vivi. "Are you absolutely sure that this magic works? Have you even seen it?" Erza's question was a legitimate one. "I had the same question after I did all my research." Naruto grabbed his white shirt at the collar and pulled it down enough to reveal his left pec. To Erza's surprise, on it was a carving. However it was different one to the one she saw on Olaf.

"You did it to yourself?" Erza was shocked.

"Yeah. This carving releases me from anything that imprisons me." With that Erza understood how he escaped from her grasp and the ropes. "This carving was something you can easily do to yourself. The downside to this is that I may be able to escape anything that imprisons me, but in order to escape from certain thing, my body bends to abnormal shapes which I do not have the flexibility for. This hurts… A LOT"

"Anyway, the plan for tonight is simple." Naruto decided to tell Erza his plan. "First we need to make sure that the villagers will be safe, so we evacuate them all to another place, except for Olaf. Since they will know where he is. Vivi-chan will go with the villagers, while you stay back with Olaf to defend him and kill the demons. I want to try and catch the mastermind this time, so I'll leave the demons to you."

"If the mastermind can control so many demons, then he will be strong. Will you be alright alone?" Erza had a valid point, but…

"I'm more worried about you. Can you handle all of those demons alone?"

XxX

It was night time. Olaf was told the plan and agreed to stay behind. He thought that he would be in danger but it was for the village so he didn't mind. Vivi was leading the villagers away.

Erza had exquiped into a different armour. Her blue skirt was replaced with a longer white skirt with metal plating around her waist. Her armoured chest plate, was changed for a smaller chest piece that barely covered her modesty, which left her stomach and neck revealed. She now wore armoured gauntlets and boots, and held two matching swords in her hands. Large wings sprouted from her back, which looked like they were made from individual blades. Her hair was shaped to cover her right eye, and there were a winged headpiece sprouting from it.

This was her **Heaven's Wheel Armour** , and in this armour she could exquip many swords and have them levitate. Olaf would have loved to enjoy the view, if an army of demons weren't approaching. Around twenty demons stood a hundred metres away from Erza and Olaf.

"Um… are you sure you'll be alright alone? I know that you said you would be enough…" Olaf was pale. These demons had been tormenting the members of his village for months now, but now he stood in front of them all as if he was welcoming them into his village.

"Naruto was right. These demons are real pushovers." Erza grinned slightly as she summoned eight swords to levitate around her. "I have seen much stronger demons."

"Yeah but they're still stronger than your average mage right? And there are a lot of them." Olaf was doing his very best to not run away. Contrary to his real emotions, his voice seemed to hold strong. Maybe he didn't want to sound pathetic at his end.

"I told you not to worry." Erza gripped her two swords tighter as she prepared to charge. "Are these all of the demons?"

"I… I think so." Olaf hesitantly answered. He wasn't exactly sure of their numbers, but it looked about right.

"Good." Erza spoke as she leaped forward. The distance between her and the demons closed very quickly. Rather than running, it looked as though Erza was hovering over to the demons. Olaf questioned whether he saw that right. He thought he might be seeing things and rubbed his eyes when Erza was a few metres away from the demons. When he opened his eyes again, he was surprised by what he saw.

"How the…" Olaf opened his eyes to see the army of demons flying flat on the ground riddled with swords. He had only closed his eyes for a couple of seconds.

"That was easier than I thought. This is hardly an S-Class quest." Erza turned back to see Olaf with a slack jaw. No one could blame him; the threat that was plaguing his town was defeated in a matter of seconds by a single wizard. Fairy Tail was not to be underestimated. "I wonder how Naruto's doing." Erza whispered under her breath as she requipted back into her normal armour.

"Wait. The large demon isn't here." Olaf commented.

XxX

Previous to the demons appearance, Naruto had thought about the ideal locations to watch the demons attack the village, and was currently standing on the closest cliff which was a five minute walk from the village.

[Whoever is controlling them needs to be close enough for them to control the demons, but wouldn't want to close so if they're caught and distracted, the demons would attack back. This place is the best to watch from.]

And just as Naruto thought, a man could barely be seen through the almost pitch blackness of the night.

"This is a nice place to watch." The voice was speaking to no one in particular. "I wonder what kind of show I'll see tonight."

"I'm hoping it will have a little question and answer. I'll ask and you answer." Naruto walked out to face the man. When the man turned around Naruto realised something was wrong. He couldn't see anything about the man. He knew the person was there but he just couldn't see him. It was like nothing Naruto did would make him able to see the person. It had nothing to do with the darkness either. "What are you doing?"

"Me? Sorry I'm not that kind of villain. I like my secrets." The man spoke. The only clear thing about him was his voice. It was like there was a natural aversion to looking at this man.

"Your magic prevents me from actually being able to see you, even though I know you're there." Naruto was blurring his eyes, looking from the side, and a bunch of other things to try and make out any feature of this man. "And If I know where you are. I can kick your ass, I may let you go if you stop the demons though."

"I have no desire to stop them. They are doing their job just fine." The man sounded like he was grinning, much to Naruto's annoyance.

"Fine. We'll do things the hard way." Naruto leapt forward to kick the man, however the kick went right through him, or so it felt. The man had ducked under the attack, and then launched an uppercut at the blond who didn't see it coming. As Naruto landed on the ground he thought of the many ways to beat this opponent.

XxX

"Dammit. I should have known." Erza was running in the direction of the evacuated villagers. Olaf was a fair distance back, but was running as fast as he could. "They need sacrifices, so they would be targeting the villagers."

"PLEASE SAVE THEM!" Olaf yelled after Erza. As long as she could protect the rest of the villagers, he didn't care what happened to him.

"Roger." Erza once again shined blue and exquiped a different armour. Although the term armour is used generously here. Her chest was barely covered by a cheetah print armour bikini, while her black shorts were incredibly short. Her left shoulder was covered with the cheetah print shoulder plate, which connected to a collar around her neck. Cheetah ears were also protruding out of her head. This was her **Flight Armour**.

"Is she an exhibitionist?" Olaf who could just see Erza's change had no choice but to question this. He had only seen two of her armours, but both of them showed off a lot of skin. But those words missed Erza's ears since she was running a lot faster than she was before.

"There they are." Erza's **Flight Armour** greatly boosted her speed. "Looks like they're alright."

"Ah it's Erza." Vivi jumped up and down as soon as she saw Erza. "Finished already?" The rest of the villagers were confused as to why she was back so soon.

"They were easier to defeat that I thought they would be." Erza stood in front of Vivi and Elana as she requipted back into her normal armour. "But the largest one that you mentioned wasn't among them, so I thought it would have come after you."

"Nope, nothing here." Vivi smiled energetically. Of course she would be happy, she had just helped (although not really) defend a village from the same threat that destroyed her own village.

"Where is grandfather?" Elana asked, and with that Erza understood.

"Oh no."

"Oh no indeed Erza Scarlett." A new voice appeared from the direction Erza had come from. She turned to see a woman standing on the shoulder of the three metre tall demon. However, Erza couldn't quite make out her features, or the fact she was actually there. Beside her, Olaf lying on the demons shoulder.

"You are the one controlling the demons?" Erza asked the person on the shoulder.

"Not me personally." The woman laughed at the red head.

"Hey Erzachi, who are you talking to?" Vivi tugged at the red heads leg concerned for her wellbeing.

"You don't see her on the demons shoulder?" Erza asked the girl.

"Erza-sama. There is no one there." Elana spoke. She couldn't hide the worry for her grandfather in her voice.

"Magic that averts people's sight. I assume the stronger your opponent the more likely they are to notice you." Erza exquipt the **Flight Armour Swords** , a pair of short swords with thorn-like handguards.

"Correct~ I am impressed Erza-san. Being able to see me is quite a feat, not that it matters. However you will not be able to stop me from finishing this carving." Erza could tell the enemy was grinning at her, even though she couldn't see it. It was then she felt something crawl on her back.

"Vivienne, get off me. You'll slow me down." Erza spoke harshly.

"Trust me Erzachi." Vivi's voice held confidence. "I can't see the enemy so let me help like this." Vivi then whispered into Erza's ear.

"You can do that? That makes this an easy fight." Erza grinned as she watched the three meter tall demon charge at them.

"Kakakaka. It's useless."

" **Accelerate**." Vivi whispered.

XxX

[Hey brat. Use my chakra and you'll be able to see him clearly.] Naruto could hear Kurama speaking to him from inside his head. Naruto quickly ducked as he felt his opponent charge towards him, he avoided the blow then lashed his hand out with a whip of **Darkness Magic** , aiming for as wide of a space as he could. The attack hit his opponent forcing him to jump back or take the full force of the blow.

[Remember that whole, I don't want to let you out and die part?] Naruto argued internally. As he took a quick breath before charging towards his opponent.

[Remember that whole, I don't want you die in this dimension part? Just use my chakra dammit!] Naruto punched the ground where he thought his opponent, he didn't mind as he released a wave of darkness all around him, which he felt hit his opponent.

"Dammit, you're good." The man spoke. Naruto heard it was behind him so used his finger like a gun and shot a bullet in that direction. "You're really good." The man blocked the attack easy.

"If I could guarantee catching you, you would be seeing a lot more." Naruto annoying replied. His opponent wasn't overly strong, he was just tricky.

"You say that like I haven't been holding back as well." The man confidently spoke. "You see, we have a plan, and in order to achieve that plan, I cannot show my strength here."

Naruto sighed. He expected something like this. This opponent had only been attacking with his body, yet if Naruto couldn't see him properly then he too had a large amount of magic which he has not been using. "So what now?"

"Honestly, I have enjoyed this little battle of ours. So I believe we should make a deal." Naruto shivered as he felt the man smile. "I will tell you the name of my guild, as long as you tell me something about that carving on your chest." Naruto's eyes widened. There were a guild worth of people using carvings like the one on Olaf, and this man could sense that Naruto had one too.

"Deal. You first." Naruto bared his teeth at the man causing him to giggle.

"We are Solomon's Children, it is a pleasure to meet you." Naruto felt the man bow. "Now how do you about the carving you used?"

"A book I found." Naruto vaguely answered. He thought the information on the guilds name was worth the mention of a book.

"Oh, well that is good news for me." Naruto realised he might have made a grave mistake, so he decided enough was enough.

"Our business is done." Naruto leapt high into the air. It was time to use what he knew would guarantee hit his target. But damn this was going to hurt in the morning. Naruto moved his hands in a circle form leaving behind a magic circle than waved his hands in the centre filling in the rest. "Please survive this so I can ask another question."

"You've got to be joking." The man dryly laughed at the attack Naruto was preparing. He couldn't get away from this if he tried. "Looks like I need to bring out my magic after all."

" **Abyss Break.** " Naruto spoke as he finished his magic circle. A dark ball of energy formed around the magic circle, and a beam was launched directly where the man stood. The dark energy shone brightly as it crashed into the ground.

XxX

Erza waited for the perfect moment as the demon fast approached. The woman laughed from its shoulder as she bent down and prepared to finish the carving. What she didn't expect was Erza to suddenly disappear from where she was standing, and appear directly beside her.

"Wha…" Was all she got out before she was kicked off the shoulder. However Erza wasn't finished. She jumped high into the air with Vivi still on her back. The demon lashed its arm towards the duo.

" **Decelerate.** " Vivi spoke as she raised her hand at the demons attack. The arm's motion physically slowed, giving Erza enough time to fall naturally. " **Accelerate.** " When Erza started her fall, Vivi sped her up giving her an extra boost, so as Erza's blades hit the demon, it cut through with ease. With three quick strikes, both of the demons horns came off, and the final strike cut the demon straight down the centre. Vivi jumped off of Erza's shoulder during the fall, and latched onto Olaf. The two of them fell slowly to the ground as the now split in half demon crashed to the ground creating a small crater with Erza at the centre.

"Grandfather!" Elana and the rest of the village ran towards the unconscious old man the carving on his back remained incomplete.

"You… How are you so strong?" The woman asked as she picked herself up.

"I cannot take all the credit for this. I had help." Erza slowly walked towards the woman as Vivi grinned widely. "Now. I believe it is time you stop resisting."

"You think I'm alone? My colleague is watching over this and will help me!" The woman confidently spoke, that was until a large boom could be heard. Everyone looked over to where the beam of dark energy was somehow darkening up the sky.

"Naruchi…" Vivi silently spoke, as she once again climbed onto Erza. "We need to get there quickly."

"It can't be…" The woman spoke as she started running towards the light as well. That was where her colleague was supposed to be. Erza nodded her head as she understood, and followed the woman with Vivi used her magic to increase her speed. They quickly caught up to the woman, and Erza quickly requipt her armour into something that could guarantee hitting the opponent. The armour she now wore slowed her down greatly, but with Vivi's magic, was more than enough to land literally on top of the woman. She now wore her **Adamantine Armour** ; a dark blue set which was Erza's bulkiest and heaviest. This is an ultimate defence style armour. There were two layers of chest plate, giant shoulder plates with three distinct spikes on each shoulder, gauntlets that would add extra force behind every bunch, a skirt lined with spikes and boots with flame like spikes on the top. This armour was the heaviest thing she owned, and when it landed on someone, it was safe to say they wouldn't be getting up easily. The woman Erza landed on was now unconscious, and her appearance cleared up so Vivi could finally see her.

"TIE HER UP!" Erza yelled back to the villagers, before exquipting back into her Heart-Kreuz armour and ran towards the light which she assumed was Naruto. When they finally arrived the light had long since died down. The ground where the attack hit was almost completely destroyed, a massive hole was made, except for a single patch that remained unharmed. In the centre of that stood someone Erza could barely see, and he was looking into the air where Naruto was falling to the ground.

"You got out of that unharmed eh? I was hoping you would at least take some damage." Naruto spoke just before he landed. The crash caused dust to fly out around him, but he had landed safely.

"You're the type of person to use **Abyss Break** on a single opponent." The man commented as he fell to one knee. "We're supposed to be the monsters."

"You're a group who uses carvings, and massacre villages. You are the monsters." Naruto spoke just before a rock smashed into his head from afar. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"You used a forbidden spell?!" Erza was outraged as she picked up another rock and threw in at Naruto. When I say rock, I mean a decently sized boulder. This is Erza after all. "What if you killed him?!"

"Then he would have got what he deserved." Naruto caught the rock this time and threw it towards the man. The rock appeared to smash into a barrier that was around the man. "Oh? Intereting."

"It appears the mission has failed…" The man spoke half annoyed. "I could beat you both and complete it, but I have more important information to return with. So farewell, we will meet again."

"Not a chance." Naruto leapt forward swinging a darkness whip at where the man was supposed to be, however the attack missed and the man was no longer in sight. "Dammit." Naruto spoke under his breath. Apparently the journal he thought wasn't important to anyway, was exactly what they were looking for. Deep in his thoughts, Naruto didn't see the fist come flying towards him from a really angry red head.

CLANG


	3. Unexpected Encounter

Hello again people. I know I know it's been a while. But in my defence I finally started and finished Fate Hollow Ataraxia *starts foaming at the mouth* Sooooo gooooooooooood.

I could not control my fanboy.

Oh and I wrote a one shot battle between Saitama from One Punch Man and Koro-sensei from Assassination Classroom, so check that out.

As usual please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Naruto, they are owned by people who don't compare themselves to a vegetable. I think... Do they compare themselves to vegetables?

* * *

"If you EVER attack an ally in front of an enemy, you are ASKING to be killed." Naruto was knocked unconscious from the surprise blow delivered by his supposed ally. It was the morning after and they stood outside the village waiting for everyone else to awaken before they say their goodbyes.

"Using a forbidden spell like that is unforgivable. I would have dealt with you and then dealt with the enemy." Erza Scarlett has her arms crossed just as furious at him as he was with her. To her, he had crossed a line that should never be crossed.

"So what is the alternative? Continuing to fight him in a way that wasn't working at all, while not knowing how many companions he had, not knowing if you had succeeded in your part of the mission. Oh and the fact that I gave him a piece of information I was unaware he was looking for." Naruto wasn't raising his voice just yet. Rage would not get through to the red head and he knew that, although apparently nothing gets through to her.

"You trust in your allies to succeed and come give you the assistance you require. What if you killed him using such a powerful spell?"

"So what if I killed him?" Naruto's words shocked Erza. She shouldn't have been so surprised knowing he was from Phantom Lord, but still. Having something as serious as death ignored.

"SO WHAT IF YOU KILLED HIM!?" She snapped.

"He's a member of a dark guild using Complexion Carve Magic. He terrorised the town we are here to protect and was so close to killing them all. If his death will save the lives of others, then how is that not a good thing?" Naruto could see Erza become a little slack jawed. "It's not like I go off and kill literally every bad guy I see. I believe in redemption, however there are some things that people just can't come back from. There is no way for some people to regain their humanity once it is gone. For example if a person enjoys the killing of innocents, or is attempting a mass genocide ritual, or is a part of a slave ring…" Naruto noticed Erza visible wince at that last one. He learnt a little more about her then she probably wanted him to. Naruto continued. "These people are too far gone and will cross a line they shouldn't again. If by killing one person who has it coming, I can save even just 1 person, it is worth it."

"I see your point however; killing should never be the go to. You talk about it like it is an option, no matter the circumstances, you will consider it. That is where you are wrong. It should never BE an option. You should ALWAYS find the other way."

"And if someone gets hurt during that 'other way' you speak about? What if someone else dies? What if they get away and many more die? That is not a risk I am willing to take. The man I fought will now go off and do something. Maybe try this ritual again; maybe try to get revenge on my guild or yours. I believe he will come after me for that journal I mentioned I have. Anything he does from here on out, could have been prevented, if my attack killed him. I want you to remember that when whatever happens next happens." Naruto chose then to end the conversation as the majority of the villagers were finally awake. Erza noticed this and thought it would be a good idea. He had gotten his point across, as had she. It would be up to both of them to decide how much they will adopt into their thoughts from now on.

"So what next?" Erza asked as she looked over to the village centre, where the two horns of the demon were being decorated. "Do we call in Rune Knights for the captive?" Erza motioned to the unconscious girl with long blonde and a long white sleeveless dress with two slits in the front for her legs. This was the woman Erza had fought. She was still unconscious and tied to a pole which Naruto hammered into the ground.

"Na no need. I'll take her straight to the Magic Council myself. I've got business there." Naruto grinned at his companion.

"Okay. Although I will later check with the council to make sure she got there." Naruto grinned when Erza gave him a questioning look.

"I don't kill in cold blood. Oh and would you mind taking Vivi-chan back with you? You only need to take her as far as Onibas. There is a Phantom sub guild around there she can stay until I pick her up."

"I don't see why not… It will be fun." Erza thought for a second. "I have a question. Vivi-chan is a five year old right?"

"Yeap." Erza looked a little downcast with the answer, even though she already knew the answer, she hoped that maybe she heard wrong.

"Her magic has accelerated her growth has it not?"

"Yeah… both physically and mentally." Naruto looked sad as he answered. He wasn't surprised Erza picked up on the side effect of mental trauma and **Acceleration Magic**. So he hoped she would look after Vivi and let her be the child she should be. It wasn't something he could easily ask the others in Phantom Lord to do, since Vivi was just as much of a professional as the rest of them, however Erza was not a work colleague and so she could become that caring figure Vivi can be herself around. Only Naruto and George currently fit those conditions.

"I'll look out for her. Just get the prisoner to the council unharmed."

XxX

It took Naruto two days to get to the Fiore branch of the magic council. He had cast **Sleeping Magic** on his captive the entire trip so she had yet to wake up. He had given Erza a small lacrima so he could communicate with her if the need ever arose. He also made a few calls from it to others, including someone who would check up on the village to make sure it would be okay, and to examine the patch of lush grass. Erza and Vivi were taking it easier, so they were still a day away from Onibus.

"Should I be concerned that you have a young woman draped over your shoulder Naruto-kun?" A tall elderly woman was the first to greet Naruto as he arrived. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a purple turtleneck with the council cloak hung over it.

"Belno-sama, I'll have you know I have had no impure thoughts towards this attractive sleeping lady." Naruto cheekily smiled at the elder woman of the council. She was one of 3 members of the council he enjoyed the presence of. Naruto dropped the horn he was carrying, he would come back for it when he leaves.

"Dark guild?"

"Solomon's Children."

"Oh? That's a new one."

"Never heard of it either."

"Interrogation room?"

"Please."

The two walked and made small talk. Being the most laid back among the elder members of the council, Belno was someone Naruto would consider a friend.

"Seigrain or Ultear-chan in?" The two other members of the council Naruto would consider friends. Although there was something off about Seigrain that he just couldn't put his finger on.

"Seigrain is at a different branch, Ultear will be in later today so you'll have to wait to see her." Belno may be fellow council members to those two, but also knows their involvement in the council was purely to diversify their ranks. Ultear was added to join her as the only female members, while Seigrain was added as a young Wizard Saint.

"Need a hand with the interrogation?" Naruto rarely helped with them; however his magic was unsurprisingly useful at doing so.

XxX

She slowly cracked open her eyes. A dark unfamiliar room. Wait a second. What is this ominous feeling? Why does she feel disgusted and scared by the room? She rubbed her eyes and realised what was wrong. The room wasn't supposed to be dark. The light above her was bright, and the room should have been well lit. However the darkness that covered the walls was sucking up the light. What happened? How did she get here?

"The mission…" She held her head which hurt. This room was messing with her.

"You failed." An elderly blonde council member sat on the only chair in the room. She picked herself up off the floor to finally realise she wasn't bound by anything. She shook her head to finally clear her vision and realised this was a chance.

"Leaving me untied. How stupid." She leapt forward ready to strike the council woman, but her hand stopped right before contact. The darkness on the wall had leapt out and latched itself on her hand, pulling her back and slamming her into the wall. "Aaah… AAAAHH" She started to scream as the darkness slowly started to crawl on her. The darkness crawled up her neck, and into her open mouth. You could see the fear in her eyes.

"Enough." At Belno's word, the darkness pushed the captive off the wall freeing her from its clutches.

"How can it see me?" The woman asked as she coughed and struggled to breath.

"You mean that carving on your back?" The words caused the woman to jolt. "Solomon's Children aren't the only ones who know about those crests."

"How do you…?"

"I'm the magic council sweetheart. We're just not so pathetic to sacrifice the lives of others to use them. Although I bet you wish you had the one that frees you from your binds right about now." The key to this was to make the captive believe you know a lot more then you really do. This becomes easier when their state of mind is erratic because of the darkness that surrounds them. When they think you know a lot, they become more likely to give you information they believe you already have. That was one part of a Naruto style interrogation. However he could not be the one asking questions as he needed to focus on the fine movements of the darkness when he needs to protect Belno or scare the woman.

"I've never heard of Solomon's Child before today, however I am no stranger to a certain mad scientist journals. It is simple work erasing one." Naruto did this not Belno, but a simple lie won't hurt. "Now… you have two options. Tell me everything about Solomon's Children, or I will leave you with this darkness for a while longer."

"Ha… I won't tell you anything." She half spat out, yet she couldn't shake the fear from her voice. The more important part of the Naruto style interrogation was the fact it is a carrot and stick approach. The darkness instantly lashed out and started wrapping itself all around her. "KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She managed a scream just before her mouth was covered by the darkness. She could still breathe from her nose, but her mouth and eyes was no longer usable.

"It is a shame. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Belno grabbed the chair she sat on and walked out, leaving the woman pinned to the wall with darkness crawling all over her. She was left alone in the room with the darkness only to be visited again in a day's time.

"This is easier than I thought. I expected more from a guild I have never heard of." Belno spoke to the blond who was concentrating while seated in the adjacent room. This room had a one way mirror so they could see into the room. Naruto's darkness was thin enough of this wall to make it see through, yet thick enough so the captive wouldn't notice.

"She's not battle hardened. If anything she seems pitiful." Naruto didn't like torturing people. But this wasn't something he could half ass. This was important. She had slept for another 6 hours after Naruto's arrival, and now Naruto and Belno would spend 2 hours waiting before Belno would re-enter the room. She said she would wait longer, however in a room with nothing but darkness, time loses its meaning. A few minutes will feel like an hour by that time.

"It's a necessary evil."

XxX

"Hello Naruto-kun." It was around 90 minutes into the wait before Naruto was spoken to again.

"Ooooh Ultear-chan. Finally back from wherever you were." Naruto smiled at his long dark purple haired friend. Her short white kimono held in her curvaceous figure. When he saw a slight roll of her eyes Naruto's grinned. "Annoying business?"

"Very annoying business." Ultear sat on a chair beside Naruto and put her feet up on his knees. "It was the geezer's task, but it got pushed onto me because they're lazy." She wasn't speaking to him in a professional capacity so a relaxed tone like this was okay.

"Naaaw… poor Ultear-chwan." Naruto mocked the girl who gave him an annoyed glance. "If it's council business it must have been important."

"It was a meeting with a lacrima dealer because this branch is running out of water lacrima for the bathrooms and we have yet to be resupplied."

"Seriously? I know this is the Magic Council and all, but you don't have pipes here?"

"Urgh… It'd be a lot easier." Ultear rubbed her temples. Naruto smiled at his friend. He'd known her since she joined the council and he would like to think they had gotten closer. But he could tell she was still hiding things from her. Then again, everyone had things they would rather hide.

"How's Seig?"

"Very busy. He's all the way in Midi on business. There hasn't been a council member there in years, so they've become a little too anti-us."

"I honestly don't get how you can do this sorta stuff. Don't you miss the quests, the freedom?" Naruto was once offered a position in the council at the same time as Seigrain and Ultear. He had made quite an impression from his time in Phantom Lord. However he instantly refused. The amount of paperwork might have killed him by had

"Someone's got to do it." Ultear drove her heel into Naruto's leg as it does annoy her that he didn't join. She wouldn't have been the lowest on the totem pole if he did. Then she remembered. "Oh by the way, about that thing you asked."

"The strange power thing?" Naruto asked. He had requested that Ultear alert her sources the council was looking for people who use a power similar to magic, yet not magic. Naruto wanted to know if someone from his world ever reached this one.

"Yeah. The walking on water thing you said they would be able to do is what gave them away. There are two people with black coats with red clouds on it seen Bosco. They were asking around for a person, who uses a power similar to theirs. They're now making their way towards Fiore. Will you tell me why you're looking for them yet, and if you're the one they're looking for?"

"Nope. I told you this is personal."

"Fine, but don't forget this isn't for free. I'm going to ask you to do something you really don't want to do eventually, and you will have to do it. No questions asked."

"Yeah yeah." The two of them sat in mostly silence. Naruto was still focusing on his power, making it move just the right amount to send fear through the captive woman. It wasn't long before Belno walked back in nodding at Naruto to signal it was time. When Belno walked back into the room, Naruto released the captive, making her believe it had been almost a full day since she was last free.

She should be completely wrapped in fear, so that Belno's face would be a relief to the poor girl. Now Belno would offer her a deal that she would remove the darkness as long as she is cooperative from now on, and unsurprisingly that is what happened. Naruto made the darkness crawl away meaning his job was done. If she stopped being willing to supply information, Naruto would be called back, but for now his business was done. Saying goodbye to Belno, he started to walk with Ultear towards the exit.

"You should really stop by the guild some time, Ultear-chan. Vivi-chan would be thrilled to see you."

"You should bring her by more often then. You know taking a few days to visit a specific guild would cause a ridiculous number of problems." For one the few days NOT spent on council work would pile up, and other guilds would see it as favouritism if a council member visited a specific guild for whatever reason.

"You know I won't do that. This place would suck the life out of her." This place would suck the life out of anyone who doesn't understand bureaucracy. The lifelessness of the place is intentional since any action by any individual will reflect on the institution as a whole. Guilds are much looser when it comes to this as pretty much all of them don't care about image and let their work speak for them. "Anyway, I'll see ya when I see ya." Naruto waved goodbye to his friend just before picking up the horn sprinting away. He should be able to make it to Onibas before sundown, so he would stay at the sub guild for the night.

XxX

Naruto and Vivi had finally returned to the main guild headquarters. It was around midday. There was nothing eventful during this time. Vivi filled Naruto in on how much fun she had with Erza, even though the latter was a little unusual.

"Yo George." Naruto spoke to the white haired boy who sat in the centre of the Phantom Lord's VIP room. George nodded his head in response. He isn't known as the Phantom of Silence for nothing.

"Hey Naruto and Vivi-chan are back." Totomaru waved at the two while holding onto cards. He sat across from Sol and Aria who also held cards. They were playing a game of poker.

"Sup." Naruto greeted the three of them. "Are the other two on a job?"

"Non non non. Juvia-sama is in her room." Sol answered in his French accent.

"Gajeel is out on a job." Aria spoke next just before the three of them placed their hands on the table. "I lost again. So-so-so sorrowful." Aria started to cry over losing again. Vivi had run over to George and was telling him everything that happened on the job.

"I'm in for the next hand." Naruto sat down beside Aria. Totomaru picked up the deck and dealt the cards. "I learned about a new Dark Guild called Solomon's Children on this mission. They're doing some seriously messed up shit. I hope I can rely on you guys when I find their base."

"Of course Naruto. In fact, you better not leave us out of the next Dark Guild you destroy. Just because you're a Phantom of Ruin or whatever." Totomaru continued to deal as they spoke. They all discarded cards and picked up other ones.

"Yes yes." Naruto waved his hand casually. The four of them placed their cards to show Sol's victory. Aria started crying again. They continued to play until they were interrupted.

"Hey Naruto. We got a problem." The four playing cards quickly turned towards George. Whenever George speaks, you know something serious is going down.

"Um…" Vivi looked down as if she was ashamed. But a quick nudge from George got her to speak. "On our way back, at the bar in Onibus, before you got there. There were a group of guys. They were annoying, and they mentioned something called Lullaby…"

"Lullaby? Are you sure?" Naruto knelt down and looked at Vivi straight in the eyes.

"Yes… They said it was for someone named Erigor." Naruto pat Vivi 's head.

"Thanks Vivi. You might have just saved a lot of people." Naruto stood up with a dangerous look in his eye. "Get Juvia. We're going to destroy a Dark Guild."

XxX

A girl with long blue hair that curls at the base stood in the centre of an empty guild hall. The girl listened to the rain showering the guild. She wore a navy blue coat and hat. She held onto a bright pink umbrella even though she was indoors. A fur shawl hung over her shoulders and a teru teru bozu in the centre of her chest. If you had to describe this girl in a single word, then gloomy is probably the most suitable.

"Have you found anyone Juvia?" Naruto appeared from a door on the higher floor.

"Juvia has not seen anyone Naruto-sama." Juvia coolly responded.

"George what about you?" Naruto called out. George appeared from a trapdoor behind the bar. Vivi was grabbing onto his back.

"No one here Naruchi." Vivi answered for George. It seemed like the guild was empty.

"Dammit. They must have made their move already." Naruto rubbed his forehead. "SOL, ARIA, TOTOMARU GET IN HERE!" Naruto called the final three members of the Element 4 who were guarding all the exits. As soon as they had all assembled Naruto spoke again. "If no one is here, then they would have made their move on Clover Town and have Lullaby in their possession. We're close to Oshibana town so let's catch a train from there. If we move fast enough we can make it in time to stop them."

"Hey Naruto, it doesn't really matter but, what exactly is this Lullaby thing you're so worried about?" Totomaru asked. All he knew was that a dark guild called Eisenwald was going to use this Lullaby at a Guild Master conference.

"Lullaby is a demon flute mentioned in the Book of Zeref. It's not Eisenwald I'm worried about. It's what the demon will do now that it is freed."

"Ara. You seem to be well informed." A new voice appeared on the second story of the guild. Everyone looked up to see a girl that could only be described as white. Her short white dress was covered in white feathers which also had white bird like wings hanging from the back. Her white hair was short and framed her face.

"And who might you six be?" Naruto politely asks the six people spread out across the second floor.

"How rude of us, my name is Brain." The dark skinned man had neat shoulder length silver hair, and rather menacing eyes. He wore a white overcoat with blue fur lining that left his chest and stomach revealed. Unusual markings were lined over his face and chest. "But you will not need to remember that, Naruto Uzumaki."

"You're thinking of running. I can hear it." The man with upward spiking dark crimson hair spoke next. He wore a white coat over a black shirt as well as red pants. He stood beside a large purple snake.

"Don't even try. I'm too fast for you." This man had a long yellow mohawk while the shaved parts were black. He wore goggles to cover his eyes and had a long pointed nose. He wore a red and white racing outfit.

Another of the men was sitting hunched over on a floating carpet. It was clear that he was asleep. This man had spikey black hair on the top of his head with longer white hair at the back. He wore a sleeveless black vest and yellow pants with black stripes.

The last man standing up there was larger than the rest. He had long flowing orange hair and his face was very geometrical. He wore a loose black shirt with a large white collar. He also had a beaded necklace with an eye at the base. "Money makes…"

"Hey Aria. This character clashes with yours. I think we need to get rid of him." Naruto jokingly said as he nudged the large loose shirt necklace wearing member of his own guild. He quickly turned his attention to the six again. "I take it you're not members of Eisenwald."

"No we are not. But we will not let you interfere with them." Brain seriously answered. "Now it is time for you to die."

"Before that." Naruto lifted his hand to stop Brain. The entire Phantom Team now prepared for combat. "Judging by the fact that there are six of you, and that this is Eisenwald's guildhall, you guys are the infamous Oracion Seis… correct?"

"You're too smart for your own good. You may cause us problems later, you can die here." Brain raised the staff he was holding and launched an attack of green darkness at Naruto.

"Interesting." Naruto smiled at the sick feeling he felt from Brain's magic as he raised his own hand to deflect his attack. Orange darkness appeared and destroyed Brain's attack. "As a fellow darkness user I warn you, do not underestimate my darkness." A chill fell over the Phantom Lord members as Naruto's attitude iced over. They understood that Darkness magic wasn't something to be taken lightly. A simple misstep and the magic could consume them.

"Don't get me wrong. I have not underestimated you." Brain smiled. At that moment Naruto felt a chill behind him.

"Aria what are you doing?" Totomaru asked shocked as he saw Aria prepare an attack.

" **Metsu**." Aria spoke as his hands approached Naruto. This was a spell to drain its targets magic power. If this hit Naruto, he would be out of action for a while, and now was not a good time for that to happen.

"HOW SORROWFUL." Another Aria dashed out of nowhere and smashed into the other Aria. "To use my image to attack my ally, HOW SORROWFUL!" Tears started streaming down this Aria's face. He looked battered and in pain, but he still managed to save Naruto.

"What the hell was that?" Totomaru asked stunned while he drew his sword.

"The snow woman there attacked me with my own face." Aria stopped crying and took his actual position in the formation.

"I'M NOT A SNOW WOMAN!" The girl yelled as she jumped down to the first floor. The fake Aria stood beside her. "I am Angel."

"You failed to end this quickly." The man with a yellow mohawk said with a disappointed tone.

"Shut up Racer. Why don't you kill them then?" The girl known as Angel barked back.

"…as long as you have money then all your problems will be solved." The taller man of Oracion Seis was still speaking.

"Shut up Hoteye. You're noisy."

Naruto lowered his voice and whispered. "We need to stop Eisenwald. Can I leave these guys to you?"

"Oui. We have this." Sol answered for the group.

"George, I'll leave Vivi to you."

"I can hear you." The man with dark crimson hair charged forward with his snake.

"Cobra be careful." Brain quickly warned, but was too late. Naruto also jumped forward and punched Cobra in the face causing him to double back.

"What the…"A look of disbelief spread across the members Oracion Seis, excluding Brain and the sleeping one.

"Someone was able to hit Cobra."

"Fast."

"Naruto Uzumaki is not someone we can take lightly."

"Good luck guys." Naruto said before quickly charging out of the building. He was heading to stop Eisenwald.

"Cobra." Brain said as he jumped onto the giant snakes back. "Let's go after him, the two of us. He needs to die!"

Cobra clicked his tongue. "He moves before he thinks." He also jumped onto the snake. "Let's go Cubelios." The snake sprouted wings and flew out of the building.

"You don't want to stop them?" Angel asked the remaining members of Phantom Lord.

"Fighting one of the Balam Alliance might be a little much for us, but just you is fine." George's thought was shared by the Element 4. Just from the two attacks they saw, they saw that Cobra and Brain were at least at Gajeel's level. And none of them could beat him in a one on one fight. These 2v1 odds would be more in their favour.

"Shall we begin?" George asked as he drew his sword.

XxX

"So you are coming after me. Should I feel honoured?" Naruto mockingly said as he ran at the same speed as the flying snake.

"Do you mind stopping? It's hard to aim while flying this fast." Brain commented as he sent a few more attacks of his green darkness.

"I would but you know…" Naruto said as he moved slightly to avoid the attacks. "Lullaby takes current priority. If you'd like we can make an appointment to kill each other later."

"Now you're just being silly." Brain commented dryly. "Why make an appointment, when I can kill you now?"

"That's fine then. When I catch up to Eisenwald we can fight. But for now I run." Naruto smiled as he picked up his pace.

"Just tell him about Fairy Tail. He's thinking of them already." Cobra told Brain as he nudges Cubelios to go faster.

"Fairy Tail? Are they trying to stop Eisenwald?"

"Yes. Eisenwald won't be able to defeat both you and Fairy Tail, so we decided to help our subordinate guild. Killing the Element 4, the 3 Phantoms of Darkness, Titania Erza, and the Salamander in one hit will help us when you light guilds decide to fight us head on."

"Why didn't you say so?" Naruto suddenly stopped causing the giant snake to fly past him. "If Fairy Tail is involved then I have more time to fight you." Brain and Cobra stepped off Cubelios.

"Are you really so simple minded? So you really think that Fairy Tail can stop Eisenwald?"

XxX

"Th…THERE'S NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! SHE'S THE STRONGEST WOMAN IN FAIRY TAIL! ERZA THE TITANIA!" A large amount of Eisenwald members were sent flying into the air.

XxX

"HOW SORROWFUL! WE TWO OF THE SAME CHARACTER TYPE MUST FIGHT!" Aria was bawling out tears as he stood across from Hoteye.

"Juvia thinks that this is fine. Defeating the same character type will prevent a character clash in the future." Juvia stood on the other side of Hoteye, essentially surrounding him.

Hoteye held his two fingers over his eyes. "With money, not even love is needed." The ground around Juvia and Aria melted causing them both to sink into it.

"The ground melts?" Aria questioned as he pushed the soft earth around him away, causing him to stand safely on solid ground.

"Juvia isn't affected by this attack. Juvia's body is made of water." She turned into water and slid out of the soft earths grasp. No emotion rose to her face. For her this was just another fight. "Juvia is a rainwoman."

Across the room Totomaru and Sol looked a little battered. They were up against Angel who had the fake Aria beside her. Except the bandage around Aria's eyes was removed.

"He even has Aria's strength. This sucks." Totomaru commented.

"Non non non." Sol merely shook his head. "This is stronger than the real one."

"Totomaru and Sol information retrieval complete." The fake Aria spoke with a smile.

"How boring." Angel sighed as she sat down at a nearby table.

Meanwhile, Vivi was hiding under a table while George stood across from Racer. George cringed as Racer disappeared from sight. George was hit from behind, then in front, then from the side, then from in front again. It felt like Racer was playing pinball with his body.

"Why do I get the slow children?" Racer was clearly upset by his underwhelming opponent.

"It's not Acceleration Magic…" Vivi commented under her breath.

George was thinking to himself.

[Vivi is right. Maybe it's just speed magic or something like that. He doesn't seem to travel in straight lines with it either, so his brain can keep up with his movements. Wha…]

Vivi ran out from her hiding spot as soon as Racer let up. She climbed onto George's back and hung on tightly.

"We can win if we fight him together. **Accelerate.** "

George reluctantly nodded his head as he prepared for the next attacks. Fighting with Vivi wasn't something he enjoyed doing, but he currently didn't have a choice.

"Having a little girl fight with you. That's just not cool." Distaste could be seen on Racer's face.

"I don't have to. I want to." Vivi smiled at Racer. Even though he was from a Dark Guild he showed concern for her which made her happy. George would have shared the thought if he wasn't busy analysing the magic used.

"Fine by me then. Just don't cry when I hurt you." Racer reluctantly agreed and quickly disappeared from sight. George flipped the sword in his hand so it was pointing down, and spun around cutting the air directly behind him. Racer's eyes watched the blade barely miss his goggles and jumped back. "You're faster."

"Almost got him." Vivi's eyes were blank, but they looked directly towards Racer.

"Oooh. She's the faster one. But you're not fast enough." Racer once again dashed forward, and punched George in the gut before he could block.

"He's gotten even faster." Sweat started appearing on Vivi's forehead.

Juvia and Aria once again dodged the melted ground, and attempted to approach Hoteye. But once again they were stopped by a wall of earth.

"Juvia thinks this fight is pointless." Juvia was completely unharmed from this battle but is annoyed that none of her attacks worked on their larger opponent.

"How sorrowful." Aria was legitimately sad that nothing had worked so far. "To think that I can't take this fight seriously." When Aria removes his blindfold he can afford to go all out, but he has trouble controlling his magic when he does. If he did so now then he would put everyone inside the guild's life in danger.

"Whether you can go all out or not doesn't matter, for the ones who are victorious are the rich, desene." Hoteye smiled brightly towards the two before pointed at his eyes again. Hoteye hadn't moved from his spot but neither Juvia nor Aria could break through his defence.

Juvia didn't move this time and allowed the soft ground to pierce her with a splash, however she quickly moved elsewhere and reassembled the water. " **Water Slicer** " She waved her hand multiple times to attack Hoteye, but the liquid earth rose to stop the attack.

" **Zetsu**." Aria opened his palm sending a wave of airspace towards Hoteye, but that was also intercepted by the liquid ground. Whatever was blown away in the attack was quickly replaced.

"This fight may indeed be a pointless one." Hoteye continued to smile.

" **Zetsu**." The fake Aria opened his palm sending a wave of airspace towards Totomaru.

"Dammit." Totomaru pushed out a purple fire from his hand, and pulled himself away from Aria's attack. "You weren't kidding Sol. He has complete control over all of Aria's power."

Sol didn't reply. Instead he narrowed his eyes slightly. If he could get Angel to touch him, he would be able to use her memories against her. What would it take? Then he realised.

"Juvia-sama. Switch." Juvia instantly nodded as she leapt towards the fake Aria with a water slicer.

"You will not escape my eyes." Hoteye pushed his palm forward towards Juvia who now had her back to him. Sol jumped in between the two, but appeared to turn himself into earth and was picked up by the liquid earth rushing towards Juvia.

"Stop it Vivi." He just made eye contact with Sol and saw as he started to make his move. George reached over his shoulder and touched her forehead. "Don't overexert yourself."

"But… haa…" Vivi's heavy breath was because the sheer amount of magic she needed to force out to match Racer was enormous. She tried to slow him down, but her magic couldn't stay on him.

"Don't worry Vivi-chan. You've done enough." George placed down the girl. He appreciated that Racer was waiting for him, however he was going to use it. He leapt towards the liquid earth attack and used the back of his sword to smash it so it wouldn't hit Juvia. Upon contact, a magic circle appeared on the sword causing a blow similar to a hammer which was enough to redirect the attack into Angel who wasn't prepared for it. Racer took that opportunity to appear behind the swordsman, and prepare his attack. But this was blocked by Totomaru, whose retaliation was easily avoided. What Racer didn't expect was Aria to appear literally out of thin air beside him when he stopped.

" **Metsu**." Aria's airspace was about to trap Racer, but he still had enough time to escape. However he ran straight into the wall of fire that surrounded him.

"HOTEYE! YOU HIT ME!" Angel yelled as she angrily stood back up. At that same time, Hoteye tried to attack the Phantom Lord members again, but his attacks were countered by an equal amount of Juvia's water. The fake Aria leapt towards her with his unbreakable airspace, or so Angel thought. George had a magic circle appear on his sword again, and this time, literally rend the airspace around the fake Aria giving him enough room to step in and cut across its chest.

"Non non non, Sorano-chan. What would poor little Yukino think of her big sister like this?" Sol was a part of the liquid ground around Angel, and started to reform half wrapped around her. His words were enough to shake the unsuspecting girl, giving him enough time to launch a flurry of kicks and punches at the girl, ending his combo with a giant earth fist appearing from his palm. " **Platre Sonata.** "

"It appears their teamwork is quite rich, desene." Hoteye softened the fist before it made contact with Angel, as well as the ground she crashed into. The injured fake Aria rushed to her side and picked up the girl, before saluting and disappearing. Racer had quickly put out his flames and now stood beside Hoteye.

"Good job everyone." George praised his comrades while not dropping his ready stance. He hoped they would have dealt more damage with their teamwork, hopefully taking two of them out of the fight, but only Angel was injured enough to be unable to fight from now, and she doesn't fight head on. This was bad. Really bad.

"Aaaah. I'm pissed off. That creepy thing looked at my memories." Angel stopped her foot annoyed, as she pointed at the no longer stretched out Sol.

"About that… I have questions about this Tower of Heaven…" Sol had say a lot more than he expected when he searched for her worst memories. He would definitely need to tell Naruto about this.

"Tch…They need to die fast." Racer was visibly annoyed by the mention of the tower. Hoteye and Angel shared this look. George started to panic. There was no way they could beat these 3 if their surprise combination attack dealt minimal damage. And this was with Naruto fighting 2 somewhere else, and one sleeping. How on earth could they get out of this alive without Naruto's help?

It was then everyone froze. A wave of disgusting darkness magic washed over them.

XxX

"I see why both of us were required." Cobra commented as he was once again knocked away by a darkness forged hammer made by Naruto. Cobra could hear Naruto's muscles move and pre-empt all of Naruto's attacks. But if the sheer number of darkness based weapons in the sky were anything to go by, it was impossible to avoid all of the fast paced attacks. Whips were constantly cracking in random directions. Spears, swords, and hammers flew around with no real direction, until Cobra or Brain got close than it would target them. Naruto also constantly shot out bullets at both of them, while attacking with his fists every other time. This was a costly way of fighting quickly draining his magic reserves, and it doesn't really target an enemy, only the area around them, which is why he couldn't use it on his opponent from Solomon's Children.

"How do you have so much magic?" Brain asked intrigued. As a scientist, it was only normal for him to be amazed by this feat of pure strength.

"I'm just that good?" Naruto shrugged as he leapt upward to avoid Brains spiralling darkness attack. Cobra's pet snake whipped its tail and slammed Naruto's back sending him flying towards Cobra who sent a poison fist at the blond.

"Oh shi…" Cobra started as he heard Naruto think [Perfect]. Just before the attack it collided, he clamped his hands together, created gauntlets out of darkness and pummelled the top of Cobra's head. Sending him flying to the ground. Cobra's fist managed to graze Naruto letting his poison finally start spreading. Naruto used a darkness whip to push his back, helping him avoid another of Brains attacks and fly towards the ground, landing directly on Cobra with quickly made darkness boots. The boots wrapped around the poison dragon slayer and dug him further into the ground. It would be impossible for him to get out of that without help.

"So it's just me and you." Naruto looked towards flying mage and grinned. Brain felt one of his markings disappear meaning Cobra was not coming back this fight. "I thank you for approaching me like this. It will be good to take down one of the Balam Alliance, and then learn about the other two."

"As much as I would like to defeat you, it appears I am not strong enough just yet. And as much as I would like to let him out to defeat you, I do not imagine the others being defeated." Brain was honestly contemplating his options. When he finally decided he sighed. "It is a shame, but I will have to kill your teammates before dealing with you." Brain tapped his staff on the air, and a blinding wave of darkness shot out everywhere temporarily blinding Naruto.

"Dammit." Naruto cursed as he felt the mage run back towards the Eisenwald guild hall. Naruto looked behind him as his vision cleared up to see the flying snake pick up Cobra and fly in the opposite direction. Naruto would have to choose between chasing and catching Cobra or saving his guild mates.

"Hehehe." Naruto chuckled a bit as he created a thought projection to chase Cobra. It's funny how often people forget such a useful trick. The real Naruto chased after Brain. The thought projection was still laughing. It had the easy job of chasing the snake. He would follow it until its base, then the real Naruto would come with strong reinforcements from the council and other guilds to defeat Oracian Seis for good. A constant thought link to the real Naruto means both Naruto's were receiving the same information, so the thought projection had to make sure to not do anything that could distract the Naruto who currently stands in between his guild members and 5 members of one of the three strongest dark guilds.

"So… I assume you won't just drop dead for me if I asked?" Naruto's casual comment was met with a flurry of attacks from Racer. When George and Totomaru prepared to charge Naruto raised his hand. "I got this. You guys need to leave."

[ **Oho… So you're going to use my power are you?** ]

[I don't have much of a choice do I?] Naruto questioned his captive as he ducked under a darkness attack from Brain just to be met with rising ground from Hoteye. George signalled to the other members to run. Reluctantly the Element 4 agreed and picked up Vivi as they tried to escape. However Racer wasn't going to let that happen without a fight.

"Not so fast." He said as he appeared in front of the group. He was preparing to attack all 6 of them simultaneously, but was stopped when he felt a massive surge of power.

" **They will leave when they want.** "Naruto's red slit eyes met Racers own instantly and smashed his head into the ground. Naruto was now surrounded by a bubbling red coat shaped to a fox with 4 tails.

"I wonder what that is?" Brain curiously asked, but when he felt one of the markings on his face recede he started to worry. Sure Racer hadn't seen the attack coming, and his magic wasn't activated, but even so, a one hit. The rest of Phantom Lord had long since gone, but Naruto remained at the doorway to prevent anyone else going through.

" **Are we done? Or would you like to continue?** " Naruto asked. His friends were safe, and his projection was still in pursuit. He was confident he could beat everyone who was awake, but there was something off about the sleeping one. Naruto couldn't afford to risk it now.

"We would very much appreciate you letting us leave." Brain's words came as a surprise to the others.

"But…" Angel started to complain, but then she looked down at Racer and realised Cobra wasn't around. She knew she was battered and wouldn't be able to take a hit from that either. They were done.

" **Good.** " Naruto made the cloak disappear. "Phew… I expected more resistance. Apologise to Cobra and Racer when they wake up for me. From what I hear they don't kill needlessly." Naruto left those parting words before leaving. Naruto hopped from tree to tree for a bit until he caught up to the Phantom Lord group.

"Naruto-sama?" Sol questioned Naruto who looked very pale for some reason.

"Yo… Status report?" Naruto asked the team.

"Juvia is unharmed, Naruto-sama." The rainwoman was the first to reply.

"Vivi-chan is exhausted and has a fever, I am two spells down and a little battered, but nothing serious." George answered.

"My performance was so sorrowful." Aria started to bawl his eyes out again. He was the most injured from the group, having taken the most damage from Angel's clone of him.

"Unharmed…" Totomaru grumbled.

"I am unharmed Naruto-sama. I have some information we need to discuss." Sol bent awkwardly as he eyed the seriously pale blond. "How are you?"

Instead of a reply, the blond collapsed. Cobra's poison was still spreading through his body. Kurama's chakra was fighting the poison and slowing its spread, but it wasn't stopping it completely. Kurama once told Naruto that it had to do with magic vs chakra, and if it were a chakra based damage he could flush it out instantly, but magic based damage would need time to recover. Unfortunately for Naruto, his projection also felt the effects of the poison and was unable to follow Cobra all the way.

XxX

"So that's everything Sol got from her memories." Naruto had just finished telling Ultear everything that had happened. It was important the council get all the latest information especially since it was a member of the Balam alliance. He left out quite a number of details, including Angel's real name, Sorano, and the power Naruto used at the end.

Naruto found out that Fairy Tail had in fact stopped Lullaby, saving a number of guild masters as they met for one of the occasional meetings. Although he heard that they had destroyed an important building in the process, much to Naruto's amusement. The rest of his team were back at HQ recovering from their battle. The worst injury would be Vivi's fever, but they were all mentally beaten. They were supposed to be the strongest guild, yet they were beat back by a dark guild with ease. Things would have been different if Gajeel and Jose were there, but even so…

"Being able to scare off Orcaion Seis is quite a feat Naruto-kun." She had made notes of everything Naruto said as a member of the council. The information was only a few days old, and there were a couple of details previously unknown to them.

"I couldn't have done it without my comrades." Naruto couldn't take credit for Kurama's chakra and so he preferred to divert attention. "But I do have a question. A Tower of Heaven, or R-System, didn't the council have them all destroyed?"

"I'm surprised you know about that. But yeah there shouldn't be any more of them. It must have been an old memory." Ultear's instant response convinced Naruto, or so she thought.

"Yeah you must be right." Naruto didn't notice a slight grin appearing on the woman's face when Naruto commented. "If not I would personally kill everyone involved." Naruto wasn't so convinced. A man named Jellal who apparently had a striking resemblance with Seigrain was in charge of the one Sorano was a captive of. Naruto knew Ultear was hiding something from him, but would ie be something this big and evil?

He shrugged it off. It was an issue for another time. He would give his friends the benefit of the doubt.

It was then Naruto felt the communication lacrima in his pocket activate. He waved to Ultear who nodded and walked off understanding the need to privacy.

"Hello?" Naruto spoke into the orb to see Jose's face appear.

"We're having a Phantom meeting of all the higher ups. Get back here at once." Jose hung up after those words causing Naruto to roll his eyes.


	4. Off With The Fairies

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Fairy Tail. They belong to other people. Not me.

* * *

"So you want me to watch the border of here and Bosco, search for a Tower of Heaven around the south coasts, and check out a ridiculously large area to find the Oracian Seis base of operations, while still looking out for a village you asked me too. IT HASN'T BEEN A WEEK!" A voice yelled at Naruto through the lacrima that he was holding. The voice was somehow digitised making it impossible for anyone else to make out anything about them.

"Oh come on. You know you can do that easily." Naruto complained to his friend. "It's not like I expected all of this to happen."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. Mr 'I don't follow the drama the drama follows me'. Watch, the meeting you're about to have will be something that will force you to do something major. You damn drama seeking whore."

"Naaaaaw. Love you too." Naruto smooched the lacrima much to the person on the other side's discomfort. "I've got to go."

"I'll let you know about the cloaked guys soon." The voice on the other end said before cutting off.

"Why does he change his voice like that? It's annoying." A man squatted beside Naruto, half barked half asked. He had long shaggy black hair, wore a black coat with white pants, and had various metal piercings all over his body.

"He likes his privacy, Gajeel." Naruto answered, the other non-Element 4 S-Class member of Phantom Lord. "Master seems ready for us all." Gajeel nodded as he stood up and they both entered the meeting room. It was a typical conference room with a number of chairs around a large table. Around this table sat the Element 4 and the 5 Area Masters positioned around the table with 2 empty seats. These 5 would be the closest to S-Class, but not strong enough for Jose to promote them.

"Amber, Baldroy, Mey, Tanaka, Meg." Naruto politely greeted the 5 Area Masters who all nodded their heads in response. A meeting like this doesn't happen often, so further pleasantries would have to wait until after. Naruto sat at the head of the table, away from where Jose had just walked in and sat down, claiming his right as second in command. This seat was always up for challenge, and any member can take it. They just had to beat Naruto first.

"First let's start with reports." Jose began. This wasn't the reason for the meeting but it always happens at the beginning of every one. Each Area Master goes into how many new members have signed up, how many quests are coming in and being completed for their individual areas, and other housekeeping stuff like that.

The first to speak was Tanaka. Tanaka was the eldest member of Phantom Lord, and the most loyal. He had grey hair which he kept at a manageable, short length which he stylishly slicked back to keep some refinement to his look. The grey hair matched his thick moustache that was shaped almost like a horseshoe and looked like it was groomed to perfection, as to not allow it to grow unkempt. He wore a classic black suit jacket and pants with a white button up shirt underneath with only the top button undone. Tanaka's polished attire was a true reflection of his personality. He was a true and proper gentleman in all ways. By all regards this man was strong enough to be S-Class; however he had long since retired from the front lines and chose to work a comfortable managerial position as an Area Master.

Next was Megalin. She was visibly in her late thirties, although if anyone knew what was good for them they would know it was not wise to ask Meg her age…or make any comment about age around her…or ask her when her birthday was…just don't ask. Although her age was a mystery, Meg was a striking beauty. She had long, crimson hair that entrancingly flowed around her head and down her back. Her choice of attire always came with signature red framed glasses that made her icy gaze all the more intimidating. She also wore a red coat that always hung below her shoulders, showing off her smooth, pearly-white skin. The buttons that fastened the coat around her chest were magically enchanted to never fall lower than she wished. But don't let her appearance fool you, Meg was not someone you would want to try to mess around with and if you did all she needed was her main weapon, a rapier, which hung from her black pants to make you regret it.

Baldroy was next to speak. He was a tough, burly man with a build that would intimidate even the manliest of men. Unlike Tanaka, he did not keep himself so groomed, he let his shaggy yellow hair go wherever it please and rarely bothered to groom it, only when it became a nuisance would he so such a thing. He also had a rough, stubbly beard growing, the mark of a true man. He always dressed himself in a completely clean miner's uniform, and a pair of brown goggles would always hang around his neck. Baldroy, Megalin and Tanaka were older members of the guild who, like Naruto, witnessed the change in Jose first hand over the years.

Mey-Rin, who was around Naruto's age, got up to speak next, her voice was calm and collected. She had to clear her throat before talking which was probably because she was constantly observing everyone and everything but rarely spoke herself. She kept to herself a lot as she preferred solace and quiet to noisy company, however if things ever got serious she would deliver some serious pain to the enemy. She had messy brown hair tied into two short ponytails. A more unique feature about Mey-Rin were her blood red eyes that would put the fear of god through any normal person that saw them hence why she kept them hidden behind a pair of thick black glasses. Her attire was casual and nothing significant like the previous three wore, she had a basic black leather jacket and paired it with blue jeans.

Amber was the last to speak as he was the youngest and no older than 14 at that. The blond haired boy was easily and constantly mistaken for a girl due to his effeminate appearance. Like Mey he was more reserved and shy but had a particular fascination with flowers. Despite his demeanour he was still able to hold his own against most members of the guild but that didn't stop some of the guild members from picking fights with him but Amber always sent them packing and made sure they knew their place. For some reason the boy held his hair back with red bobby pins which Naruto couldn't figure out the reasoning for. He also wore a loose fitting white shirt, plaid pants and black knee high boots. He also had a straw hat sitting around his neck and Naruto could swear he'd never seen him wear it.

Naruto listened to the reports with interest, but had nothing to add to the conversation. Gajeel was falling asleep, while the rest of the Element 4 found other ways to amuse themselves. Totomaru was picking his lunch out of his teeth. Juvia was making another teru teru bozu. Sol was turning parts of himself into earth, wrapping his arms around himself, and sinking further into the chair. Aria seemed to be meditating, or praying; Naruto didn't know if he was religious or not.

Now that, that was done, Jose cleared his throat before getting to the reason for this meeting. "A very rich client made a request recently." Naruto rolled his eyes knowing about this. "The Heartfillia Konzern is one of the wealthiest companies in Fiore. Its founder and current owner is the one who made the request. He wants us to not only find his daughter, but make sure she is unable to run away back to the same place. I had Gajeel track her down, and she is in the perfect location for us."

"Gehehe." Gajeel's chuckle put Naruto on edge. Something bad was about to happen. Dammit his friend was right. "The girl Lucy Heartfillia has joined Fairy Tail."

"So according to the mission, we are required to both get the girl back and destroy the Fairy Tail guild." Jose's grin was shared by most of the members, albeit for different reasons. Gajeel, Totomaru, Sol, Megalin, Baldroy and Amber all had wide smiles at this opportunity. It was not every day you get a chance to go head to head with the guild apparently called your equal, crush your competition and for Jose, get revenge. The rest seemed indifferent. Except for Naruto, he was pissed.

"Everyone out now." Naruto coolly demanded.

"We are not finishe…" Jose started to speak, but when Naruto slammed his palm on the table, everyone moved.

When the room was finally cleared Naruto spoke. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME BOY!" Jose stood up, enraged.

"I'm sorry Master. But you've officially gone insane. I mean you've always been a little crazy, we all are, but this is a whole other level." Naruto didn't flinch under Jose's glare. "You want to start a war with Fairy Tail over a girl?"

Jose calmed down slightly. "Yes, and you will do as I say. This is a chance. All we need to do is get Makarov out of the fight, maybe using Aria's ability, and then the rest will fall quite easily."

"Need I remind you that it is illegal to fight another guild?"

"That doesn't mean much coming from you. That law applies to Dark Guilds as well Phantom of Ruin. You just fought against Orcaion Seis, while trying to fight against Eisenwald, both of which were unsanctioned fights." Jose sat down believing he had the upper hand in this debate. "You see Naruto. We aren't as different as you might like to believe. I have not changed, you have just started to see the world for what it really is. Once you accept it and become a part of it you can fully embrace life."

"That is not a life I want to lead, and it is not a life anyone should lead. The darkness is not a fun place to be." Naruto sighed and stood up. "I will leave you one warning. The law does not apply to fighting within a guild. If you try to go after Fairy Tail, I will PERSONALLY stop you."

"Hahaha. You think you can stop me boy?" Jose laughed at the back of Naruto as he walked out of the room. Those outside had heard the entire exchange between the two. It seems that sides will have to be chosen. They all filed back in, while Naruto walked away. He pulled out a lacrima and sighed.

"What is it now? Something happened in the meeting didn't it?" The digitised voice from earlier spoke.

"Well…"

XxX

Naruto stood in the quest room. This room had walls plastered with every quest that has come Phantom Lords way that had yet to be accepted. They were perfectly ordered according to difficulty. Naruto was not alone. A younger member of the guild stood nearby.

"What quest you thinking of taking Ryos?" Naruto asked the young black haired boy in a black cape.

"I can't take the ones I want."

"That's because you need to show us your magic first. We can't just send you on a hunting quest without knowing your skill, even though we know you have magic." Naruto watched the boy grumble a bit. He didn't want to show his magic just yet, for whatever reason. Instead of responding the boy left the room. One day he would show them all his magic, and tell them his real name, but for now he was okay just being around Gajeel who he was a major fan of. Naruto didn't wait in that room long before someone else joined him.

"Well, well Naruto-kun. You could have handled that better." It was Tanaka. Of course he referred to the meeting.

"I know, but it has gotten so messed up so quickly, all because a daughter ran away from her rich father." Naruto frustratingly rubbed his forehead. "It's going to happen way too fast isn't it?"

"Indeed, but it's not like we weren't planning for it. And this way you have the perfect excuse." Tanaka placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Mey-Rin-chan has agreed to join us. I believe Amber-kun is the next most likely."

"My contact has also moved up the schedule. I can only hope that he's still willing to help with all the shit I've dumped on him."

"Do not worry Naruto-kun. This coup 'd'état of ours will be successful. Especially if we can get Fairy Tail on our side."

"If not, we might not be able to make it in time."

"Even if they do not join us, you should warn them. We need to show that our side stronger than Master Jose's, then we can finally return Phantom Lord to its former glory."

XxX

Naruto let out a massive sigh. He didn't like coming here. The town of Magnolia wasn't very friendly to members of Phantom Lord. Naruto had been standing on the edge of town for a good ten minutes now. Naruto grumbled a little, before finally taking a step into town. He stopped when he felt a presence coming towards him.

A very shady man started to approach Naruto. His dark blue cloak, bandana and pants, and green mask covered most of his body, while bandages covered the rest. On his back slung multiple magic staves. "Oho~ You must be the fabled Mystogan." Naruto marvelled as he stuck out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you." Naruto couldn't see his eyes, but he felt them narrow. Naruto slowly dropped his hand as he felt the hostility radiate off of him. "I'm not here to fight anyone. I'm actually here to warn your guild. I am no threat to you." Satisfied by the response, Mystogan tried to disappear and walk away, but Naruto's eyes followed him even while he was invisible much to the mage's amusement.

"Well that was interesting." Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he finally entered Magnolia. His first destination wasn't going to be the Fairy Tail guild though. There was one place that would probably like to see him more.

"Oh it's Aniki."

"Naruto-niisan"

"Hey everyone." Naruto walked into a local church, and almost instantly he was surrounded by young boys and girls. They all excitedly bounced around him and he pet them on their heads as they did so.

"It has been a while Naruto." An elderly priest with a round stretched face with grey hairs on the sides and a moustache approached the blond.

"Yo Father Block." Naruto waved at the older man.

"I'm glad you're alone today. But it wouldn't hurt if you stopped by more often." The priest and Naruto shared a look. They both knew what the Father meant. Naruto was well known by the orphanages around and even outside of Fiore. During Naruto's travels, if he finds any child who is alone and cannot be taken care of by those around them, he will personally take care of them until he finds an orphanage that can look after the kid.

"You know it's not easy for me to come to Magnolia. But I'm here now." Naruto shrugged. He spent the next couple of hours playing with the kids. Whatever they wanted he would do. Hide and seek. Kick the can. Pretend fighting. Any number of games they played. Naruto finally decided it was time to move on and go to the Fairy Tail guild.

"Sorry kids, but I gotta go." After gently walking through the complaining children, Naruto finally noticed that Father Block had a new guest, and they had been watching him for who knows how long.

The rather eye-catching woman did not look like she belonged in a church, her clothes leaving very little to the imagination. She wore brown three-quarter pants, a light blue bikini and high heeled sandals. That was it. Her long brown hair hung freely and had two strands framing her face. She also had a shoulder bag with large light blue feathers all over it. Naruto could see the black Fairy Tail guild stamp on the left side of her abdomen.

"I didn't realise I was being watched." Naruto smiled at the newcomer.

"You haven't met?" The priest didn't realise they were strangers, since they both visitor often. "Cana Alberona this is Naruto Uzumaki." At the mention of his name, Cana quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a few cards and got them ready to throw. This alarmed the priest greatly.

"This is why I don't visit very often." Naruto raised his hands showing that he did not want to fight.

"And to think I was enjoying watching you play with the kids, Phantom of Devastation, was it?" Cana lowered her hands when she saw the priest step in between the two.

"Ruin actually." Naruto corrected just before the priest got his words in.

"Cana! It is not wise to draw a weapon in front of the children." For what it was worth, Cana did seem a little apologetic, but she did not drop the hostility targeted at Naruto.

"Cana-chan." Naruto earned a harsh glare for saying her name in an overfriendly manner. "I'm not here to fight or anything, I just need to speak with a guild member of yours."

"Sorry if I don't believe you."

"Cana. Naruto is the Golden Fox." The priest rubbed his head. Naruto had told him in the past about the conflict between the two guilds, but he did not expect it to be this bad.

"Eh? That donor? How out of character" Cana was surprised. The priest just told her that the churches biggest donor was a member of Phantom Lord. She finally dropped her hostility. Father Block wouldn't lie to her about this. "So you gonna tell him about the mission too?"

When the priest looked a little disappointed, Cana realised she made a mistake. "Mission?" Naruto questioned the priest. "If you need something done tell me Father. I can get half of Phantom on it with a single call."

"I know Naruto, but the Chavana Church cannot in good consciousness send a person who is widely known for killing on a job for us. We are not Zentopia." The priest's words were unshakable and to the point. Naruto felt a little offended.

"I do not kill unless the situation calls for it. It may be against your teachings, but your teachings did not protect half the kids out there." Naruto pointed to where the kids would be playing outside. "My killing may be a sin, but I have no issue being sinful for the right reasons."

"Oho~" Cana was definitely interested in what the blond had said. She personally didn't like the idea of killing, but she saw his point of view. She supposed it came down to how they were raised. She had felt many times that the world would be better without certain people, but Naruto gave into that urge.

"Nevertheless, we cannot send you on a Holy Mission with that mindset."

"If you ask me not to kill I won't, but there is no need to pay someone to do something when you know I'll do it for free."

"We're not paying Cana." Naruto looked over to the girl who simply nodded her head. Father Block smiled in response. "However, I do not believe the Church would be opposed to sending you as help, on the condition that you obey the Chavana teachings when it comes to others."

"Done." Naruto nodded his head. "So what's the mission?"

"Would you be alright with him joining Cana?"

"Yeah, it could be fun." For some reason the girls smile sent a shiver down Naruto's spine. He didn't know it yet, but even with Kurama, his liver wasn't going to be happy with this arrangement.

"Okay. Both of you follow me please." The priest walked inside the small church, rather than the living quarters, as to not have the kids hear or see what might happen. Naruto shrugged and followed, Cana still had her cards in hand, just in case. Inside was a typical church, pews of seating with an altar at the front with a small confessional to the side. This was not Father Block's main place of worship. The important services, whatever they may be, took place in the Kardia Cathedral, which was arguably Magnolia's most distinctive landmark. However the majority of small events like everyday mass took place here, as there would not be enough people to warrant using the big Cathedral. The priest motioned to a pew, which Naruto and Cana both sat on.

Father Block cleared his throat. "Holy Artefacts have been stolen from churches all over Fiore. We aren't sure what they are looking for, but they have had no issue killing and torturing priests to get them."

"Sick bastards." Cana was getting seriously pissed off at whoever these people were, but her anger was nothing to the hatred radiating off the blond beside her.

"So you want them found, arrested, and the items recovered?" Naruto questioned.

"Indeed. We are unsure of where they will strike next, but we have a list of churches they have attacked and when, so hopefully you can find them." Father Block pulled a sheet of paper out of his robe and handed it to Naruto, knowing he was the more resourceful of the two.

Naruto grinned and handed it to Cana. "I interfered in your mission. You take point."

"What a gentleman." She joked as she started reading the list. "Yeah I got no idea. I think we're gonna need more people to watch all the churches."

"Most churches are increasing security already, you just need to find them."

"So do we go to the latest attack and wait until they strike again?" Naruto questioned.

"There has to be a pattern. Is it one group or many? This just seems too random." Cana rubbed her chin in thought. Maybe she would have to find Levi and ask for her help. She would be the most likely to figure it out in Fairy Tail, except she was out on a mission.

"I know someone who would be able to decipher that, and he'd join us for the mission too." Naruto believed George would be more than able to help with this.

"Another Phantom Member?"

"He's tamer then I am."

"Perfect. Let's go."

"Oh, I need to speak with Lucy first." Naruto remembered why he was originally here.

"Lucy? What business do you have with her?"

XxX

Since the guild would be closing for the night soon, Cana took Naruto to the place where they would be guaranteed to meet Lucy.

"You want me to wait inside her house?" Naruto hesitantly asked. This was definitely a bad idea.

"Yeah don't worry. Here's a key." Naruto didn't ask why she had a key to Lucy's place, but didn't let it bother him. "Anyway, I'm gonna go pack for the mission. I'll meet you back here."

"Sounds good." Naruto waved before walking up the stairs to Lucy's front door. Entering the apartment, he sat down around the coffee table. The walls were a pure white, and Naruto currently sat in an incredibly large room, which was both main room and bedroom. He could see doors to a bathroom and kitchen. There were a large amount of books all over the place, and he noticed a stack of pages on her desk. Getting up to look at them he realised they were a draft of a book. Lucy was a writer. Picking up the manuscript, he sat back around the coffee table and started to read.

He would have made himself something to drink but that would just be rude. He technically wasn't even a guest there yet. But after a while, he realised he really needed to go to the bathroom. Placing the script down he walked into the bathroom, noting it was also well sized with a bath and all. Finally feeling relief he started to hear commotion outside. Assuming Lucy was home he quickly washed his hands before walking into the main room.

"We'll do an S-Class job, Lucy!"

"HOW DID YOU GET THAT?!"

The first thing Naruto saw was a blue cat holding onto an S-Class quest. Naruto later learned this cats name was Happy. The next thing he saw was a pink haired boy in the middle of a sit-up. This boy was shirtless but Naruto could see a sleeveless black coat beside him. This matched the black cloth around his waist. He also had white knee length pants. Naruto could see the Fairy Tail guild stamp on his right shoulder. Naruto knew that this man was Natsu Dragneel the Salamander.

Stand above the two, and apparently quite shocked at them was a blonde haired woman with a ponytail tied on the right side of her head. She currently wore a tight fitting black shirt sleeve top and a white skirt. Naruto assumed this was Lucy Heartfillia.

"Wait a second. Salamander's not an S-Class is he?" Naruto commented aloud, instantly drawing the attention of the 3 others in the room.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Lucy yelled as she threw a nearby book at Naruto. Easily catching it, he watched as Natsu took a defensive stance in front of Lucy.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Phantom Lord!" The cat froze as he recognised the name.

"The Phantom of Ruin!" Lucy excitedly squealed. If she hadn't joined Fairy Tail she would have tried to join Phantom Lord. She didn't know why he was in her house, but for such a well-known mage she wouldn't complain.

"What are you doing here?!" Natsu angrily questioned as he charged at the blond to attack. The fist of fire was easily caught by a glove of darkness which literally enveloped the flames snuffing them out.

"Oops." Naruto commented as he saw the 3 people not used to **Darkness Magic** shiver at the feeling they got from it. "I'm not…" Naruto started but a kick from Natsu forced him to release the pink haired mage. Once again the flames from the kick were eaten by Naruto's darkness. "Can you stop…?"

"GET OUT OF LUCY'S HOME!" Natsu yelled as he once again charged at the blond, this time with a flurry of attacks each with fire imbued. Every time though, Naruto blocked the attack, and used the darkness to absorb the flames. When he realised it wasn't working, Natsu leapt backwards and took a deep breath. " **Fire Dragons Roar.** " Naruto's eyes widened when he realised what was about to happen. He had seen Gajeel do this many times. He couldn't snuff it out at easily as he did the other attacks.

"Dammit Natsu." Naruto complained as he leapt towards the pink haired mage. He pushed darkness out of him and when Natsu released his breath, Naruto had it wrap around the flames. Lucy watched as darkness with an orange tint wrapped around the fire, making it change direction and send it out the open window and straight up into the night sky. Lucy finally realised what was happening.

"Natsu stop." She said as she prevented the Salamanders next charge.

"But Lucy…" In response, the blonde punched the pink hair of the mage, causing a lump to form on his head. "Heeey."

"You're going to destroy my apartment like that!" She let out a deep sigh, before turning to her intruder… uum… guest. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm sorry, but Cana-chan said it would be okay for me to wait here. She even gave me a key." Naruto put his hands up defensively, but as soon as their fellow Fairy Tail mage was mentioned, everyone relaxed slightly.

"How did she get a key!?" Lucy rubbed her temples.

"Anyway, I have something to speak with you about, Lucy Heatfillia." At the mention of her last name, the Celestial Spirit mage looked incredibly shocked. She fell back onto her bed which caused Natsu and Happy to worry. "Your father has requested your return by any means necessary. Phantom Lord has accepted that quest, however not all of us want that, and so here I am to warn you. I'm gonna see Master Makarov next to warn him too. You guys need to be ready for a fight if I can't prevent it in time." Naruto saw that his continued presence was less and less welcome as Natsu was about to get hostile again. Lucy also couldn't speak. Her father would really go that far.

Was it possible her being here would endanger the guild?

Could she stay knowing this?

"Oh by the way." Naruto's firm voice snapped her out of her daze. "Your draft is good. You should definitely keep working on that." Naruto left a slightly blushing blonde being held by the fire mage and walked out of the apartment.

"That was Natsu's magic!" A voice down the street rang out as Naruto stepped out the door.

"Oh shit…" Naruto shook his head as he realised what was about to happen. He looked to the source of the voice to see three men running towards him. He recognised two of them from missions in the past, and they recognised him. The first man wore an open knee length white jacket on top of a black shirt and brown pants. His short dark blue hair was slicked back, and he had a stubble. This was Macao Conbolt. The other he recognised wore a long sleeve green floral shirt and pants that end just after his knees. He had a brown pompadour and a cigarette in his mouth. This was Wakaba Mine. Naruto had met both of these men on previous missions, and they knew he was Phantom Lord.

They had seen Natsu's flames fly into the sky earlier, this and the fact he just walked out of Lucy's apartment, did not sit well with them.

"We gotta warn everyone. Warren, tell everyone we're under attack by Phantom Lord." Wakaba ordered the third man. This man named Warren Rocko wore a high collared red and brown jacket and white pants. When he placed his fingers to his temple, Naruto realised he was a telepath and cursed his luck slightly.

"Hold on a se…" But before Naruto could finish a fist of smoke, made out of **Smoke Magic,** reached out from Wakaba's cigarette and upper cut Naruto. He easily blocked the attack, but didn't coat it with **Darkness Magic** whichmeans it wasn't enough to prevent him from launching into the sky. Before hitting the apex of his flight, Naruto's leg was caught by a rope of Macao's magic **Purple Flare** , a sticky type of flame, and was being dragged towards the ground, hard. Naruto internally hoped that Natsu, or Lucy would appear and explain what's going on, but considering the state he left her in he didn't imagine that was going to happen.

Naruto quickly sprouted darkness from his foot and cut the **Purple Flare** loose before he hit the ground. He now flew on an unusual angle and got further away from the three mages. He would have to hold out until Cana came and got them to stop, they wouldn't believe him if he said he didn't want to fight at this point. Natsu's flames ruined that. Cana should have got the telepaths message, but from the little time he knew her, he could assume she would watch on for fun until it got seriously bad for him.

Naruto properly landed and stuck with chakra waiting for their next attack. What he didn't expect was a new person to suddenly appear and punch him with a gorilla's fist. From the side of his view, Naruto saw a tall man with spikey grey hair was the one who attacked him. He wore dark blue jacket and pants, and geta sandals. Naruto assumed this was Beast Arm Elfman. He had heard of him before. When Elfman tried to attack again, Naruto caught the attack, but was pushed back slightly. Being able to tell that his **Takeover** magic was incomplete, Naruto didn't want to attack the rest of his body for fear of seriously harming him, since it wouldn't be above the level of humans like his arm was. So he leapt over the taller man, putting him in an arm lock.

"I'm not here to fight." Naruto started, but was quickly forced to leap away when a few tiles were flung in his direction by the **Purple Flare**. Elfman turned and quickly punched the ground near Naruto confusing the blond, until a giant smoke fist appeared in the dust cloud, and once again launched him into the air. Naruto quickly regained himself and looked down at his 4 opponents, and realised that the telepath was coordinating the attacks. Naruto had to run, since fighting was not an option. What Naruto didn't expect was two ghosts to appear on either side of him. Naruto tried to swat them away, but all it did was give him chills and cover his vision slightly. Naruto saw that a girl down on the ground was controlling them. This dark-skinned girl had an orange cat hat covering her long blonde hair, and a pink and purple sleeveless vest with white sleeveless shirt underneath and a dark miniskirt. Naruto had no idea who this was. He later found out she was Chico C Hammitt.

Naruto wasn't sure how to deal with these ghosts, but he didn't have enough time to worry about that as he felt something approach him with great speed. He quickly put up a darkness shield, but the attack pierced through and Naruto was hit by a blunt force to his head. If he wasn't chakra reinforced he would be dizzy or even knocked out. Naruto turned to where the shot was fired from and realised it was a long way away. Flowing enough chakra to his eyes to see across that distance showed him that the shocked person who held a sniper rifle. The long green haired girl wore a yellow cap, white and yellow polka dotted scarf, short strapless black one piece dress and brown boots. For a second Naruto could have sworn he recognised her.

"Mulan Rouge?" He questioned, but didn't have time to marvel at the likeness as a new attacker appeared beside him. She was a small girl who also wore a one piece dress, except hers was striped. She had striped gloves with larger clearly combat gloves over those. Her long brown hair had two horns laid over the top. Naruto later learned her name was Mickey Chickentiger. Naruto blocked the punch, and countered with a palm attack. That was easily pushed away, and the two went back and forth for a bit as they fell. Until suddenly, she let him push her away and he realised why soon. Below him stood two people with a fist on an open palm. Naruto recognised this as **Maker Magic**.

The first was a man with black spikey hair. He wore a silver necklace and underpants. That was all. Needless to say Naruto was very confused. Naruto later learnt his name was Gray Fullbuster. The other was a smaller lady with long purple hair with a red ribbon in it. A matching ribbon was around the collar of a light teal coloured coat which reached below her waist. She also wore tight fitting red pants. This was Laki Olietta. **Ice Make** came out of the man while **Wood Make** came out of the woman. Both simultaneously shot out numerous speared objects from the ground towards the falling Naruto. Doing the only thing he could. Naruto shot out his own **Darkness Magic** and used it to destroy the attacks that came towards him. He stopped his attack before it hit the two mages though.

Naruto landed safely on the ground, or so he thought. Where he landed collapsed onto itself into a pit of sand. A man with a dark yellow bowl cut was held out his hands guiding the sand. He wore a blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark blue pants. This was Max Alors. The sand didn't hold long as Naruto pushed it all away using his darkness, but that gave Elfman and Mickey the chance to send a bombardment of punches Naruto's way. Naruto was easily able to block them all, but it distracted him enough for **Purple Flare** to tie him down, and another shot from the sniper hit him in the head. Naruto felt a little dizzy after that one and had no choice but to retreat. Once again breaking all the purple flames holding him down, he leapt into the air, straight into a pile of smoke; which punched him a few times from random directions since he had no room to block.

This didn't slow Naruto down, and gave him enough of a chance to escape the majority of the enemies that were there. What he didn't expect was to see another mage on the rooftop he was about to land on. He saw a man with a brown poncho and with his shaggy black hair covering his eye. This was Alzack Connell. Two guns were drawn from cases he had around his belt, and he pointed them both at Naruto. Naruto raised his hands into gun shapes as bullets flew from the stranger on the roof towards him. He shot two quick darkness bullets that clashed with the magic bullets. Naruto landed beside the black haired mage who smiled at the sudden gun challenge. Diving to the side, Alzack shot many types of bullets at Naruto, who met them all with a darkness bullet of his own. Naruto meeting the gun challenge may have been enjoyable for the both of them, but when he felt another bullet from the sniper approach, he was too distracted to be able to block it with darkness in time. He took another blow to the head.

"Dammit Mulan-chan." Naruto cursed as a wave of dizziness caused him to miss a few of Alzack's shots, literally shocking him with electricity as they made contact.

"You know Bisca?" The gunner asked as he watched Naruto create a barrier of darkness between them.

"Who the hell is Bisca?" Naruto asked as ghosts started to surround him. Still not sure how to fight these guys, he leapt into the air to escape. But instead of a clear escape, he was met with Elfman's attack, this time with a stone bull's fist. Even though he blocked the attack Naruto was flung into a web of the sticky purple flames. He was caught in these sticky flames while smoke that had built up around the flames began to converge on top of Naruto. Naruto sighed, this was getting exhausting. Once again he used his darkness to cut his way out of the **Purple Flare** , and beat away the **Smoke Magic**. What he didn't expect was a man with orange hair, blue tinted sunglasses, a green coat with white fur lining, orange shirt, black pants and an assortment of rings to suddenly appear and punch him with a burst of wind, sending him rocketing across Magnolia. He later learnt that man's name to be Loke. Naruto noticed the mage used a lot of his power in that attack to send him flying like that. Which means…

"Shit shit shit…" Naruto started to panic as he felt himself rocket towards an enormous presence. He quickly approached a giant palm that was ready to swat him. "I didn't want to fight dammit." Naruto cursed as he made his darkness power rocket from the base of his feet. He couldn't fly, but he was NOT running into the palm of the man who beat Master Jose. Naruto barely managed to slip through the fingers, it was so close his leg hit the side of it, sending him spiralling out of control. Before he hit the ground, Naruto had re-centred himself and braced himself preventing the majority of the damage. As the dust settled, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he picked himself up. He had yet to be attacked which means he could take a few breaths and hopefully talk his next opponent down.

That was until he realised who his next opponent was. A sharp killing intent was close by. Close enough to make Naruto freeze. Naruto turned to see who it was.

"No it can't be." Naruto started to worry. This was no longer a joke. This level of dark aura, it could only be her. "The Demon Mirajane." A girl with pure white hair walked slowly towards Naruto. Her long hair had two bangs that framed her face and an upward ponytail on the front. Her curvy body held in by a sleeveless maroon ankle length dress. In her hands she held a broom. She was now within arm's reach, but Naruto had yet to move. When he was finally about to move, the Demon did something he did not expect. She smiled at him. A chilling smile that once again froze his movements without magic.

Naruto then proceeded to take a beating from the broom in Mirajane's hands.

XxX

Cana could not help but laugh. She knew something was going to happen by leaving Naruto in Lucy's room. But THIS was just too good. She heard the Warren's announcement but wasn't worried. After she finished packing she saw Naruto fly across the sky and straight towards the Master. Thinking it was about time she saved the blond from the Master she approached the short elderly man. What she didn't expect was that very same elderly man to be cowering behind a wall watching as Naruto was beat on by the former S-Class mage. Makarov wore his orange and blue jester's hat, orange hoodie with white shirt and black Fairy Tail guild mark on it. His white hair stuck out the sides of the hat, and he also had a white moustache.

After explaining what Naruto was doing there to the Master, Mirajane and the few guild members who had quickly approached, Cana laughed at the twitching blond that lay at the guilds feet.

"So… He was here to speak with us and we attacked him." Makarov let out a deep sigh. His guild may have been in the wrong here. After all Natsu would attack almost anyone, so seeing one of this attacks should not have been an excuse to fight. But in front of him lay a member of Phantom Lord, and he knew exactly the kind of people they were.

"That's right." Naruto picked himself up off the ground. He was still pretty much uninjured even though a large number of guild members attacked him which impressed Makarov. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. It's a pleasure Master Makarov." Naruto stuck his hand out.

"Same to you." Makarov shook Naruto's hand, unintentionally crushing it slightly. "So what brings you here."

"Not good news I'm afraid. But it's not something that your guild should hear from me, so a private conversation would be preferred." Makarov nodded at Naruto's words. He turned to dismiss the rest of the guild, who all looked a little disheartened. Not because they attacked someone who didn't deserve it, but because all of their attacks were for almost nothing. Naruto was unharmed. The old man thought for a moment before he spoke.

"It is times like these where I am proud to be a member of Fairy Tail. Each of you heard that a friend… no, a member of our family was in danger and all you answered the call without a second thought. You fought the enemy together, and we came out victorious. Sure the enemy wasn't here to fight and seems mostly unharmed. But the man who stands before you has been a candidate for Wizard Saint for years, and you gave him a run for his money without me or any S-Class mage. Know this. You protected your family today. You have earned your rest tonight. I'll see you all tomorrow." Makarov's words did make everyone feel a little better, but it didn't change the fact Naruto didn't attack them. They all went their own ways except for a few.

"Um… hey… Naruto-kun." A slightly embarrassed green haired sniper approached the blond.

"That is a new look on you, Mulan-chan. It suits you." Naruto smiled at the old friend of his. "Or is it Bisca-chan now?"

"My real name is Bisca Mulan. Sorry for not telling you." She bowed slightly.

"Hey hey, no need. Things have changed since… wow it's already been a year and a half." Naruto's bright grin irritated the other shooter of Fairy Tail who watched the conversation. "I'm glad you finally went legit, but why Fairy Tail instead of Phantom Lord?"

"I met Erza, haha." The girl chuckled as she watched Naruto's face show his understanding. He had met Erza, she leaves an… impression… on people.

"Okay we definitely have to catch up when I get back from a mission I just accepted. We'll do dinner?"

"Um… I don't think…" Bisca tried to reject Naruto. It's not that she didn't want to, but her time as Mulan Rouge is long since over.

"You shot me in the head like three times." When a tinge of guilt swept over her face, Naruto grinned. "Come on. It'll be fun."

Bisca thought about it for a little longer before finally nodding her head. "Okay. See you when you get back." Bisca turned her back to Naruto and started to walk towards Fairy Hills where she stays.

"So you and Bisca know each other?" Cana asked as she nudged the blond's side.

"Something like that." Cana grinned cheekily at Naruto's reply before walking to the side with Mirajane. Those two were going to wait for Naruto and Makarov's conversation to end. The elder man walked towards the guild, which was close by, where they could talk indoors and in private. Naruto followed in silence, while the other two were shortly behind him.

None of them saw the person who was watching them from afar on a nearby rooftop.

XxX

"So Jose's finally going to try something." Makarov was processing everything Naruto told him. "Lucy Heartfillia is it? She's going to be targeted. I must speak with her tomorrow."

"I will try to prevent this mission from being accomplished, however if I fail you will have to prepare yourself." Naruto continued. "But there is one more thing I ask of you. I will be attempting to fight Jose for control of Phantom Lord very soon. I ask that you accept my Phantom Lord as a sibling guild."

"Oh? Interesting." Makarov motioned Naruto to continue.

"The Magic Council already knows about my plans to take charge of Phantom, and I got enough approval from them on the condition that you accept this term. As you know accepting Phantom Lord as a sibling guild means that we become one under the same banner, so responsibility will fall upon both you and I as the Masters for everyone's actions. This was the condition Yajima-sama set for me."

"Hmmm…" Makarov thought for a bit.

"You will also gain access to Phantom Lord's funds, resources and everything through this arrangement, including a particularly good businessman, yet Fairy Tail would not be tarnished by the negative reputation Phantom has been gaining as we will still be considered separate unlike a child guild."

"I don't think I would be willing to accept all of Phantom's members." Makarov leaked out his incomplete thoughts. But Naruto understood what he was trying to say.

"No need to worry. When I take over, every member is going through an interview with me and whoever you wish to join the new Phantom Lord. Of course some members will remain no questions asked."

After a moment of silence, Makarov spoke. "I will need time to think and ask members of my guild."

"I'll be back after my mission. I hope you have an answer for me then."

XxX

" _Alright! Who's the one who stole the necklace?!" Naruto just kicked the door of a well-known criminal bar on the small islands that littered the places in between the continents Ishgar and Alakitasia. He was technically still in Fiore, but any further west and he'd be on Alakitasia territory. He knew there was another continent somewhere in that direction, but he didn't know how to get there or know anything about it really._

 _Anyway, Naruto was here for a quest. Phantom Lord's reputation spread out even this far, but the Magic Council's influence did not. This was mostly a lawless area where villages had to fend for themselves. Even right up to the coast and a fair part in, there isn't much kingdom influence. Drug rings, slave traffickers. So many of the worst type of criminal littered this place, yet he was here for a mere thief. This annoyed him greatly. He planned on taking it out on as many criminals as he could on his way back._

" _That'd be me. Now who the hell are you?" A woman with short green hair raised her hand from her seat. Her yellow shirt barely holding in her cleavage stopped just after her waist. Over this was a maroon sleeveless jacket. She wore black short shorts and boots. The black eyeliner highlighted her sharp eyes._

" _I'm gonna need that back." Naruto walked towards the girl._

" _Oh? Trying to pick a fight with a Fairy Tail mage are we?" The girl pulled a necklace out of her pocket and dangled it in front of the blond._

" _Fairy Tail mages wouldn't come this far out. You chose the wrong guild to pretend to be a part of." Naruto reached forward to grab the necklace, but instead watched as she reached out for his pocket with incredible speed. Naruto grabbed her arm as she wrapped her fingers around Naruto's wallet._

" _Oops." The girl scowled as she threw the necklace into the air. Naruto realised his mistake the instant he followed it with his eyes. He had just managed to look down in time to see the barrel of a gun in his face._

" _Really?" He asked as he studied the gun. Magic bullets from the looks of it, the gun itself didn't seem very special. Naruto caught the necklace with ease but didn't clutch it too hard as the girl reached out for it._

" _I'm not just going to hand it over. All my hard work would have been wasted." The girl teased as she once again dangled it from her fingers._

" _You literally took it from a little girl."_

" _It's valuable enough to call for you."_

" _It's a family heirloom. Sentimental value and all that." Naruto opened his mouth showing his teeth and started to clamp his mouth around the barrel. What the girl didn't see was that Naruto had coated the inside of his mouth with_ _ **Darkness Magic**_ _, so when she pulled the trigger it didn't actually do anything to the blond._

" _What the…" She stood up and leapt backwards as Naruto bit down on the gun and broke off the barrel. Naruto then spat the bullet out at the girl, who blocked it with her other gun._

" _Stun bullet. At least you're not a killer. I'll definitely go easy on you." Naruto started to leak out his magic and the two of them fought._

"…I won easily, but I enjoyed the fight more than I thought I would. She wasn't strong, but she didn't give up easily, and she never tried to hurt a bystander." Naruto continued his story. He currently sat in an empty Phantom Lord owned bar in Onibas. Cana sat across the table and was listening intently. George was reading over the list given to them by the priest and trying to see a pattern.

"So you're old enemies?" Cana took a swig of her drink and motioned for Naruto to do the same. She finished her mug and poured both herself and Naruto another.

"At first, but after the fight I bought her dinner and we talked."

"Oh so she's your ex."

"Exactly." Once again they both finished their mug and Cana repoured. Naruto hadn't met someone he wasn't able to outdrink so he was fine with matching Cana no problem. "We spoke about her past, she was an immigrant from the west and she needed to live by stealing, so I made a deal with her. I'd help her steal, but only from the gangs that ran those areas. We slowly moved towards mainland Fiore while destroying every gang along the way. Drug and slavery rings were the most satisfying to take down, but we also returned a lot of the money to the people so we didn't have much to live off. Mulan… I mean Bisca-chan was more than happy with that life. When we got to mainland though, there were no more enemies to steal from, and she was okay with that since that meant there were no gangs. She tried to get a real job but no one wanted her. I offered her a place at Phantom Lord, but she snapped, assuming I was pitying her and started to steal from people who weren't criminals. She said she did not want to rely on me, in much harsher terms of course, and left. I hadn't seen her since." Naruto looked down at his glass with a melancholic mood.

"Jeez. Bisca the Phantom Heartbreaker. Did not expect that." Cana had no idea that Bisca had such a past. She knew she was from the west, but that was it.

"You left me to look after Vivi for half a year… for a girl." George said, not looking up from the map he had laid out on the table. He was definitely not amused that he had to look after a 3 year old at the time. Naruto looked apologetically at his friend, but it was ignored as he spoke. "It looks like there are 3 teams hitting different locations at different times. They may be communicating but there is no way of telling. One group works the fastest so it's the biggest or most important. I believe this group will be hitting Hargeon Town. I suggest we get into contact with Blue Pegasus and Quatro Cerberus to protect the other two possible points."

"Wow… You're smart. How old are you?" Cana asked as she leant closer to the boy.

"15. I'll go make the calls. We'll move out tomorrow." He stated as he wrapped up the map and walked out of the bar.

"He's tall for a 15 year old." Cana commented.

"He's smart for one too. He's got his own complicated past, and he's worked his ass off to be strong." Naruto spoke as he smiled at the boys back. "Enough with this sad stuff. LET'S DRINK!" Naruto and Cana cheered their mugs and drank. They drank and drank and drank the majority of the night.

XxX

"HE WARNED HIM!" Master Jose grabbed his desk and threw it at the wall. "HOW DARE HE?!"

"I'm sorry Master, but that is what I saw." Megalin knelt in front of her Master. Maybe she could use this opportunity to become his right hand woman.

Jose sat back down eerily calm. "We must not be rash. Our enemies are more than we first thought. I have an idea about who we should speak to about this."

* * *

A/N

So yeah I'm putting my Author Notes here now, because I can actually comment about the chapter here. It's easier this way.

But I really don't have much to say about this one.

Just that Naruto will have the occasional flashback between his ages of 12 and 19.

Please review. Thank you, you marvellous readers.


	5. Holy Mission

Disclaim: Fairy Tail, Naruto not mine.

* * *

[ **I knew you were stupid but this is a whole other level.** ]

"I'm sorry."

[ **YOU'RE SORRY. Urgh. You just HAD to drink.** ]

"I'm sorry."

[ **I told you to stop. I told you we weren't metabolising it fast enough.** ]

"I'm sorry."

[ **You know there is a limit to how much alcohol I can purge before it affects me too. Even though I warned you.** ]

"I'm sorry."

[ **Now I've got a fucking hangover because YOU wanted to get in some girls pants. And you even failed at that.** ]

"That was not my intention. But I am sorry."

"You alright there blondie? You keep apologising to yourself." The black haired beauty Cana had a massive grin pointed towards her drinking partner from last night. Sure he had done incredibly well, but he shouldn't have tried to compete with her when she brought out the 98% stuff. Naruto held his head in his hands, and inside of him Kurama was doing the same. Cana was indeed feeling the effects of last night too, but it was nowhere near as bad, and her pride refused to let it show. Especially since it was this funny to laugh at Naruto.

The two of them sat in the back of a Magic Four Wheeler, which had the SE plug leading in through the window and attached to Naruto. With his current headache he wouldn't drive, so he was fuelling while George steered. George knew his limits. He doesn't have very much magic power, he never had. He wouldn't be able to drive for very long, and if he did he wouldn't be able to fight for a while after. So having Naruto fuel and he drive was the smartest option.

"Yeah… I'm good." Naruto forced a smile at the girl.

[ **WE ARE NOT GOOD! You're lucky this won't last for much longer or I would rip your…** ] Naruto stopped listening when the threats started.

"Just take it easy. We're gonna need you in top form when we get th…" Cana didn't get to finish as Naruto took the SE plug off his arm and ran out of the cart and decided to retaste his breakfast.

It didn't taste as good this time.

Naruto looked behind him slightly to see George looking down at him disapprovingly. Cana laughed from inside the cart, but she knew if she stepped out and saw the vomit, she too would puke. It was like he had some sort of monster inside of him destroying the alcohol. Na that couldn't be true.

"Huuuurghhh…" Naruto once again emptied his stomach. "Urgh… this sucks." Naruto slowly lifted his head and was confused by what he saw.

"Kyaaa… eh?" The girl that Naruto locked eyes with wouldn't be more than 14 maybe 15. Her purple hair was in two Dango loops with bangs that perfectly framed her face. Two dark, short eyebrows accommodated her glistening face wet with fresh tears. The issue with this picture, was that she wore no clothes.

It was clear that she had not decided to suddenly go out as an exhibitionist. She tried her best to cover as much of her body as she could as she stood there. She had watched the blond jump out of his cart and vomited, so she froze. She prayed he would not see her. She wasn't sure how she would live with herself if he saw her. She would just be too embarrassed to go on. When their eyes met her gut just dropped. She screamed, but that was quickly replaced with a surprise as the blond stranger instantly took off his battered orange fur lined coat and draped it around the naked girl. Covering her.

"Eeh... Who's that?" Cana peaked her head around Naruto and saw the girl.

"Don't know but we're taking her back to town." Naruto gently grabbed the arm of the still surprised girl and led her to the cart. George nodded his head understanding the look on Naruto's face. This was not going to end with just dropping her off. There was going to be hell to pay for this, and George was looking forward to helping deliver it.

XxX

A certain orange haired man wearing a straightjacket stood at the edge of Hargeon Town, and watched as a familiar blond boy approached in a SE Four Wheeler.

"This may be trouble." The man commented. "To think someone was able to predict our next attack. I thought we were careful. Master is not going to be happy." The man continued to think on what he should do for a moment, but decided it was probably best to greet and kill the new player before they even knew they were playing. Although he had to do it before HE came and stopped him. He struggled a little with his jacket, before hearing a click and feeling his arms fall free. In that instant, a strong pressure burst out.

Needless to say it shocked Naruto out of his thoughts. He had recovered from his hangover, much to Cana's annoyance, and was thinking about how best to ask the silent girl her circumstances until that burst of energy washed over them. He ripped off the SE Plug and flipped out of the cart and onto the roof. With his sword drawn, George did the same when he knew the cart was no longer in motion.

"What was that?" Cana asked as she had also drawn cards, but remained beside the little girl, who had done up the buttons on the jacket, but was still not comfortable around the group of strangers.

"George duck!" Naruto ordered as he saw a blur fast approach from the tree line. Naruto slightly moved to the side, and watched as the man landed beside him. Their eyes met, and Naruto's widened slightly, realising who exactly was attacking them.

"Oh fu…" Naruto froze as a magic circle appeared over the man's eye. George watched Naruto literally freeze, as if his time had stopped, and realised he needed to protect him. Tapping the hilt of his sword in a certain fashion, George caused a large magic circle to appear on the roof of the cart. The three people standing on it were launched into the air.

"Interesting." The man remarked as he could no longer take a strike at the blond who continued to get further away. But he could still attack the white haired boy. The extra sleeve that covered his hands started to fill out, as a blue aura rose from the attacker's hands. Two blades were formed, and tried to slash at George. The boy knew he couldn't block both attacks while in mid-air. So instead, he stuck his sword out, clashing with the closer aura blade and using that force to push himself out of striking distance. "Very interesting."

"…ck." Naruto finished his sentence with barely enough time to right himself before landing. He looked around to see George had landed safely away from the attacker. "Didn't you die Yuusuke?" Naruto asked the Asuras Wing member who he had met 7 years ago.

"Unfortunately for you Naruto-kun, I did not." The orange haired man looked mostly the same as he did those years ago. His hair was a little bit longer and currently had blue at the edge only after he undid his jacket. He currently stood on top of the cart.

"You didn't use those last time, and the blue tips are new." Naruto motioned to the aura blades around his hands.

"And you didn't use that shade of yours then either." Naruto clicked his tongue. Jose had used a shade as a counter to his eye magic before. Naruto hoped to take him by surprise this time by doing the same thing. "Now now Naruto-kun. I can't have you meddling in our business again." He may not look it but Yuusuke was annoyed his surprise attack failed.

"So you're attacking churches now? I shouldn't be surprised you guys have no trouble killing children. Priests should be a walk in the park for you." Naruto mocked his opponent.

"Oh please. I don't need that high and mighty attitude Naruto-kun." Yuusuke rolled his eyes at the blond. "Can we get to the killing each other part now?"

"Oh I would love to. But don't think me stupid. I can feel your friends in the bushes." Naruto pointed in a certain direction, where two people laughed a little as they stepped out of the bushes.

"Yuu-kun… Why didn't you tell us we were going to kill?" A woman with incredibly long gorgeous blonde hair was the first to speak. Her red one piece outfit could only be described as a bathing suit with her ample cleavage that was only describable as 'in your face'. Her black mid-thigh boots and long gloves covered more skin then her actual 'bathing suit' as it also had a large opening in the back covered by her hair.

"He has his reasons." This man could only be described as a bald monk. No hair covered his head, and his eyes were almost closed. His orange loose fitting pants and shirt which was left off of his right arm was the generic Shaolin Monk uniform. White bandages were tied around his feet like socks with black rope holding them in place, with brown sandals over those.

"I can't say I know the lady, but would that be Romario?" Naruto pointed to the monk.

"Indeed I am. It is an honour Uzumaki-sama." The monk bowed slightly. Naruto returned this courtesy. Romario was a very well known monk, since it was big news out east that a monk left a Monastery just to join and lead a Dark Guild out west. "This is my remaining 'arm' Adrianna."

"How do you do soon to be deadman?" She curtsies. George's eyes widened when he realised who his opponents were.

"Asuras… Wing…" He stuttered. You could feel his anger starting to radiate off of him.

"Oh shit…" Naruto commented just before George leaped towards the orange haired man on the cart.

"Cute." Yuusuke smiled as he activated his eye magic. George froze in mid-air. Not missing a beat, Romario tried to strike the boy, but Naruto intercepted blocking the chop. Naruto felt his arm break. He also felt something weird coming from him, but put it to the back of his mind. Yuusuke himself prepared to leap towards the boy, but the cart he was on suddenly jolted forward, and quite a few cards flung up at him from under the roof. Yuusuke didn't try to right himself, and fell off the cart to avoid the cards. "Forgot about you two ladies."

George unfroze and continued his leap, realising he had just come out of a time freeze, he stopped his slash so he could land safely. The second he was on the ground he pounced back at Yuusuke. This time Naruto grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"Naaaw you were so close." Adrianna complained as a shining ball of green light shot from the sky, down towards the place George would have been.

"If you don't snap out of it, you're leaving this fight." Naruto told the white haired boy.

"No need Uzumaki-sama. It was too early for us to fight." Romario raised his hand when he saw Yuusuke about to complain. "You see, my friend here was on a reconnaissance mission. He has done his job so for now we go back. We will see you again at the Hargeon church tomorrow night."

"We shouldn't tell them when we're going to be there." Yuusuke had long since deactivated the blades on his hands and was now re-buckling his jacket. His hair turned back to its normal orange.

"It makes no difference if they know. We will get the **Holy Weapon** from another **World**." Romario started to walk away.

"Another world?" They heard the blond's final words before they disappeared from their eyesight. They didn't know it, but the blond was familiar with this other world concept.

"We should have just killed them there." Yuusuke coolly stated. He was annoyed.

"We 'feathers' aren't supposed to show our full power for no reason." Adrianna nodded Romario's response.

"Trust me. Naruto Uzumaki is someone we should not hold back against. Have you heard what he has done recently? Urgh…" Yuusuke rubbed the tip of his nose. "Don't worry. We'll call the Master and he'll agree with me. So we're not actually going to wait that long are we?"

"Of course not, we'll go tonight."

XxX

"So at least 3 members of Asuras Wing will be coming tonight." Naruto grabbed a few chips off of his plate and ate it. Around the table sat Cana, George and the silent girl. Cana had dragged her into a clothing shop and bought her a new outfit, a sleeveless blue qipao that ended just above her knees, and black baggy pants. Naruto once again wore his jacket.

"Tonight? He said tomorrow." Cana's seemingly harmless words earned her a disapproving look from both Naruto, George and the girl. "What?"

"Cana-chan… He is our enemy. We don't listen to our enemies." Naruto's spoke down to the girl like she was a child. She simply shrugged and took a bite of her burger. "Will you be able to fight alone George, or will I need to babysit you?"

George didn't respond. He couldn't respond. He honestly didn't know if he could keep his cool in the face of the guild that destroyed his home town and killed his mother.

"You know you can't beat them if you don't keep a level head." Naruto told the boy. "Now what do you know about their magic?"

"Yuusuke uses **Interval Skip** magic it was designed to freeze perishable goods for extended periods of time. Being able to use it on humans would take a lot of focus, but that is also why it doesn't last very long. His other magic seems to be some use of **Aura Magic** although I need to see more to get a better judgement." Cana nodded impressed by the white haired boy's knowledge. He got a solid grasp over the enemy's magic after a short encounter. He must have done a lot of reading.

"How do you counter his **Interval Skip**?" Naruto's question got a shrug in response. George had a few ideas but it's impossible to test.

"Adrianna uses an emotion based magic. I don't know what specifically, but I assume it is light based. As her emotions change, so will the colour and power of her light. As for Romario…"

"He doesn't use magic." Naruto finished for him. "Far eastern monks learn how to fight with their bodies to a ridiculous level. I've never met one before, but they're scary people from the stories."

"Seriously?" Cana asked a little surprised by that. Sure most of Fairy Tail could hold their own in a fist fight, but to only use his fists, yet to be strong enough to make Naruto, who stood up to her entire guild, a little afraid.

"Yeah. I'm going to have to fight him and Yuusuke myself." Naruto rubbed the back of his head a little annoyed at the turn of events. For whatever reason, Yuusuke was a lot stronger then what he showed them all those years ago. Why did he hide his powers back then? Were his comrades' lives not worth revealing the secret?

"I will take Yuusuke." George stated.

Naruto looked at him and shook his head. "No." The boy had barely touched his food because he was so riled up. Being such a strong fighter meant nothing if you couldn't keep your head on straight during the fighting. He could not let George go out to die like that.

"I will help." For the first time since they met her, the girl spoke.

"Oh? So you're a mage?" Naruto asked. They were all surprised the girl had finally spoken to them. In response she raised her hand where a bubble of magic appeared around her hand. When she did so, all the plates on the table lit up, and all of the chips ended up on hers. "Oi!" Naruto reached over the table and grabbed his handful back.

"That's like your 10th plate, and you're still picky about your chips?" Cana couldn't help but wonder at the blonde's reaction

"Chips are a sacred food." Naruto responded before the girl once again spoke.

"My name is Minerva Orland. I am technically not a part of a guild however my honourable father is the Sabertooth Guild Master. I offer my assistance as repayment for the kind hospitality you have shown a complete stranger." The quiet girl now spoke with poise and elegance. You would not guess this was the same person who they met in the forest.

"Y' know… You can't act all confident after not speaking to us for hours." Cana nudged the girl's side and she chuckled slightly.

"I apologise for my rude behaviour, however I did not wish for you to ask questions."

"Don't worry about that Minerva-chan." Naruto waved his hand brushing off the topic. "You'll tell us if you want, otherwise we won't ask." Cana raised her eyebrow slightly at that. She saw Naruto's expression earlier. She assumed he was going to seek blood, but apparently not. "But I can't just let you help us, without knowing how strong you are."

"Agreed. So should we have George-kun test her, while you and I go talk to the people at the church?" Cana's suggestion made sense to Naruto so he agreed.

XxX

"My my Naruto-kun. Are you not a little early? Your birthday is not for another month. Although I always welcome you into this house, and why have you not come at all in the past 17 years?" The nun in charge got the first words out when Naruto and Cana stepped into the church. The insides were the same as the church back at Magnolia, just larger to fit the organ that sat off to the side. There were also a set of stairs down. The nun in question wore the typical black nun uniform covering everything including her hair. The only distinguishable feature would be her black eyes and the fact she was still relatively young.

This church had no orphanage, so Naruto had no idea what this nun was talking about. "What?" Naruto asked confused.

"Do you not know who I am? It appears Jose-san did not tell you much. Do you at least know about your mother's belongings?"

Naruto's eyes almost bulged out of his head when he realised what was happening. He had completely forgotten about the items, and it was kind of starting to make sense. "The weapon from another world, they want my mother's things."

"Another world… that would explain a lot." The nun thought deeply about the items she had downstairs.

"Wait so churches have been attacked for your mother's belongings?" Cana asked curiously. She didn't quite get what was going on, but if they knew what they were looking for they could easily find a way to hide them.

"Oh is that why you are here? Are you here to protect this church?" The nun smiled as she pat both Naruto and Cana on the head. "I appreciate the offer; however I can protect this place on my own. Please offer your assistance to another church just in case."

"We know for sure the main group is coming here tonight, so if it is okay with you we would like to stay." Naruto spoke doubting the nun could fight the entire group coming their way.

"Now I know Jose-san has never told you about me. That is slightly disappointing." The nun shook her head slightly.

"You know the Master?"

"Jose-san and I are old friends. I also looked after you for 2 years." She smiled at the blond who looked confused. He could have sworn Jose told him it was a wet nurse rather than a nun. "No need to worry." She once again smiled innocently at the two. "As one from the church I will not turn away one who volunteers their help. The Lord will help those who help others. My name is Otoha."

"Naruto." Nauto bowed at the nun. For him this was their first meeting, and it looked like she understood that, even though their relationship should be more complicated.

"I'm Cana." Cana idly remarked.

"Cattleya would you please go put on some tea for our guests?" Otoha asked the other nun in the room. This nun was shorter, younger, and wore the same outfit except for the headdress. Her light pink hair flowed freely down to her waist.

"Yes Madam Superior." She bowed slightly before walking downstairs. Apparently that was where the living quarters were.

XxX

"You pass." George sheathed his sword as he walked towards the kneeling girl. They were currently in the forest just behind the church. Luckily for the team, the church was on the outskirts of the village so they would not have to worry about civilians in the middle of the fight.

"I do not understand." Minerva breathed heavily as she stared at her hands. George had used the back of his sword on her, and even then he didn't hit hard. Neither did she as they both have a big fight tonight, but even so. George had her beat in speed, strength and technique. Even though he had used magic only three times, she could not beat him.

" **Territory Magic**." George offered his hand to the kneeling girl. Instead of accepting his help, she picked herself up. "Not many will be able to beat you when you gain complete control over it."

"You beat me quite easily." She turned her back to him as she started to walk towards the church.

"Technically no." George corrected her. When he got a confused look, George twisted the base of the hilt of his sword, and pulled out to reveal a compartment that held 3 lacrima. Minerva could tell they were empty. "Those were the only 3 spells I could cast without repercussion. If we continued you would have come out on top, and I would be rather badly hurt. I do not have much magic power so I save it where I can. Rather than casting the spell using my own power, I activate a lacrima and use that. I can use magic without the sword, but it exhausts me quickly."

"So you are just a weakling." Minerva had stopped walking to listen to the explanation.

"I am." George agreed instantly. He knew his shortcomings. He took out the empty lacrima, pulled filled ones out of his pocket and slotted them into his sword.

"Why are you telling me all this?" She did not understand how someone could talk so openly about their weakness.

"'I alone am weak. We together are strong.'" George quoted something that read. When he saw Minerva's eyes widened. "A quote from an old book. A friend of the author said it. I'd be happy to lend it to you."

"No thank you." She politely declined. Why had those words struck a chord with her? She had been taught that strength was pure power her entire life. Her father told her that she was bred for that purpose, to be strong. Yet in front of her stood someone who was weak, yet stood taller than she ever had. When it came to power he was weak, but calling him anything other than strong would be foolish. She wondered if she could ever be strong on the inside like he was.

"There you are you incompetent girl. Talking with an insect, HAVE YOU LEARNT NOTHING?!" The loud booming voice that appeared above the two caused the girl to shake. Was it too much to ask to have a brief moment of happiness? George looked up to see a fellow white haired man. His long hair rested on his back in a braid, while his unmanaged beard and moustache covered the majority of his face. The angry eyes that were staring a hole through George had no pupil. They were completely white. His dark red kimono top hung loosely from his left shoulder as his left hand rested inside it. So it was his right hand, with a dark blue bandage around his wrist, which was used to attack George.

"Uuurgghhh…" He barely had enough time to raise his arm before a chop slammed into him. Absorbing most of the force, George slid backwards on the ground, refusing to be sent flying from that. But it had still knocked the wind out of him.

"Pathetic." The man muttered as he looked at the cut on his leg. During that brief moment, George lashed out with his sword cutting through his dirty gold loose fitting pants. George narrowed his eyes focusing. George could easily tell who this was, with the Sabertooth guild stamp on his forehead.

"Father, please." The confident and outspoken girl softly mumbled. This annoyed George.

"Silence. I will show you how we of Sabertooth treat insects." He refused to let HIS DAUGHTER be weak. He refused to let HIS DAUGHTER tarnish the Sabertooth name by associating with this weakling.

"She hasn't officially joined the guild yet." George corrected the larger man as he took a stance to defend himself. The next punch he didn't block in time. He barely even saw the man move. The fist collided with his stomach and he was launched into and through a nearby tree. As George picked himself back up, he thanked Naruto for adding enchantments to his vest. Although his shirt underneath was ripped to pieces from the force of the attack.

"I'll give you that boy. You're strong for an insect." The man admitted as he waited for George to pick himself up. This man was not someone he could beat. His sword went straight through his calf muscle this time, yet it did not seem like a major injury. "Out of respect for your Master I will let you leave here alive." The man motioned to the guild stamp on George's left shoulder.

"Unfortunately, I will have to decline. As soon as your daughter offered to help, she became a comrade for the upcoming fight." George's attitude surprised the man. He should have left while he still had his life. "So out of respect, I give you the option to leave here willingly."

"YOU CONCEITED…!" Sabertooth's Master started to really get angry. The air around him seemingly started to heat up. George realised how bad of an idea this was, but before his opponent could pounce. He reached into his pocket and threw a large number of the small lacrima into the air.

The man pounced. George knew he couldn't win the fight, but his victory conditions were a little different. Tapping his sword in a certain way, time seemingly slowed. This was not time itself slowing, but hyper-concentration. George absorbed all the information in the surroundings reflexively, rather than subconsciously. This meant the signals in his brain needed to travel less making his movements happen faster. He saw exactly how he needed to bend to avoid the slap that was to behead him. He also took into account the location of all the lacrima as they rose. George bent to his left, so the slap would go right over him, but his sword was slowly being raised.

Time once again went on as normal. The man's slap missed. The wind pressure was enormous and rustled the boys white hair. The surprised look on his face could not be missed, as he started to use his other hand to grab the sword strike he thought was going for him. It wasn't. Once again tapping the sword in a way, a new spell was activated. The sword stretched slightly, and tapped the closest small lacrima, just past the man's head. A shock was sent from the tip of the blade into the lacrima, activating it, and then jumping to the next closest one. All the lacrima were active within a second. This was enough time for the man to raise his hands above his head to block the strike of light that smashed into him.

When the light faded, the man was unharmed, but George was nowhere to be seen.

"Grrr…" The man was officially tired of this. He was going to flatten that boy.

"Father, please." Minerva wanted to quell her father's anger, but it had the opposite effect. He lashed out at the only target he could see. Minerva.

"Dammit." George saw what was about to happen. He also noticed the man wasn't a complete monster. He held back a lot since it was his daughter. The attack would have knocked her to the ground at most. This gave Geroge just enough time to grab and move Minerva out of the way using his last spell of his sword. But after that, he was exhausted. The sword itself was specially designed to conduct magic to the lacrima and minimise its use. It was also possible to use an external lacrima in a similar way, but that took more magic. And George had to activate a lot more then he originally planned. He was almost out of magic.

"You die now." The man stood above him and dropped a punch.

"That's my line." George breathed a sigh of relief that his plan worked. Naruto grabbed the fist and kicked the man in the gut forcing him to back up slightly. "Are you okay?" Naruto asked the boy without showing his back to the man.

"The Phantom of Ruin is it?" The man stepped forward prepared for a stronger opponent.

"Jiemma-san. Would you mind stepping away?" A voice resonated in the trees. The sound continued to bounce from tree to tree. Even though the words had long since disappeared, the reverberation did not.

"Otoha-chan. Release me so I can crush these insects!" Jiemma could no longer move. He could probably force his way out of it but…

"You know I will not do that. You used to be a more gentle soul. I understand why you changed, but it is not good to hurt children to make yourself feel better." Otoha's voice continued to sound throughout the area, even though she could not be seen.

"Let me go or you will regret it."

"If you try something YOU will regret it." Naruto let his darkness seep out and cover the grass around him.

"Put that away boy. Jose used to do that too. It's not intimidating."

"So apparently everyone knows the master. He tells me nothing." Naruto shrugged annoyed, but did as he was told. The hostility was gone from Jiemma's voice. Apparently the nostalgia of the **Darkness Magic** was enough to calm him.

"The three of us used to be friends." Otoha also felt the change so she stepped out of the tree line. The reverb had also stopped.

"Friends? Ha! You were just a bratty tagalong." Now free, Jiemma walked towards his daughter. "Come."

"She will be helping the church with something. You may come back at a later date." Otoha stated. Jiemma narrowed his eyes but didn't argue. Fighting Naruto would be easy, but fighting both he and Otoha was not something he was sure he could do. He'd put up a hell of a fight, but Otoha's magic was a bad match for his own style.

"She WILL return with me tomorrow." Growling slightly, he walked away. Minerva sat on the floor shocked by what just happened. She had never seen her father back away from a fight like that. Who was this nun?

XxX

Naruto sat on a pew furthest from the altar. With his eyes closed, he was thinking. George and Minerva were downstairs trying to fix up his injuries. Cana said she'd keep watch outside just in case they would attack in the middle of the day. Today has been a very interesting day so far. Not only had he met 2 people from Jose's past, but one of them had looked after him as a baby. And a dark guild was after his mother from another universe's belongings. Naruto needed to learn both why and how this guild knows about his universe.

Also when he blocked Romario's attack, he felt a power. Something he recognised.

[ **He uses Chakra.** ] Kurama confirmed Naruto's suspicions.

[So what? He's from your world?]

[ **I'm not sure. There were no monks in our world, but if he is I'm going to break out.** ]

[I'm not going to die that easily Kurama.] Naruto smirked. Trust the Tsundere fox to warn about his attempted deadly escape.

[ **You just thought I was Tsundere didn't you, you bastard?** ]

[Naaaaaw. You love me.]

[ **I will eat you…** ]

"You seem to be enjoying yourself Naruto-kun." Naruto opened his eyes to see the nun had approached him. Naruto liked this nun. She seemed strong and smart, yet not blinded by her own power. She seemed like the type to use her power for the sake of others more than herself. Then again, that could be the nun habit. She motioned to sit beside him and Naruto moved over.

"I'm just thinking." He commented slightly. He couldn't exactly tell her about his literal inner demon.

"Why do you sit so far away from the altar? You must not be a religious person, are you?"

"If you saw some of the things I have, I'm not sure you would believe in an all-powerful being who let it all happen."

"I can guarantee that I have seen things just as bad, yet that is what drove me to this life of faith." After a long moment of silence, Otoha continued. "You were a lot noisier as a child you know. I don't expect us to become close all of a sudden, but I do want to be a part of your life. So please visit when all of this is over."

Naruto chuckled a bit. She had no idea that Naruto knew nothing of her, so those years without a visit were not because Naruto did not want a relationship with her, but because he just didn't know. Naruto could hear the relief in her voice that she had a chance with Naruto. "Of course. But you seem to know a lot more about me then I do about you." Naruto moved in his seat to get comfortable. He was clearly urging her to tell him her story.

"If you would like a full story, it will take a lot more time than we should be willing to spare." When Naruto pouted she couldn't help but laugh. "I had seen more death then most people do in their lifetime before I was 7. For years, village after village around me were killed by a mage who had possessed my body after death. My mentor found me, and saved me. Freed me from the spirit, by offering up his own body in return for my freedom. When it was inside him he purified it using his magic, and from that moment I became a nun. He taught me everything I know. During our time we did a few missions with various members of different guilds and met many people, including Jose-san and Jiemma-san. When he appeared with you in his arms, I settled down here, which I had no problem with. I'm glad I did. I raised you and Cattleya for two years until Jose took you away. I became comfortable here and never considered moving."

Naruto couldn't help but frown at that story. She simply stated the facts of her life and that was enough to get her point across. Apparently, she had seen the darkness, more than most and yet still found her way to peace through religion.

Before Naruto got to comment, Otoha continued. "So how is Jose these days?"

XxX

"GAJEEEEL!" A certain short black haired girl was grabbing onto a certain dragon slayers hair.

"GET OFF ME SHRIMP!" He shook his head trying to get the girl off.

"PLAY WITH ME!" Vivi demanded.

"GO PLAY WITH NARUTO OR SOMETHING!" He had now grabbed her legs and was trying to pull her off.

"THEY LEFT ON A MISSION WITHOUT ME! SO YOU HAVE TOO!"

"ARGH!" Gajeel finally got the girl off, but she took some hairs with her.

"Opps. Tee hee." The girl made a cute face and stuck her tongue out cheekily. Gajeel threw her across the room, accidently towards Jose. The girl did slow herself down, but she still landed on his face.

"Ah… Sorry Master." Vivi's apology came as she slowly peeled off of his face.

"Urgh." Jose just grunted before picking up his dinner plate and walking off to his office. He didn't have time to deal with this.

XxX

Cana sat on the flat roof at the highest point of the church. From here she could see all sides, so it wouldn't matter where the enemy came from, she would see them. After a swig of her drink, she once again shuffled her cards, and dealt them in a particular order.

"What does it mean The Sun is coming to help?" She was puzzled. This was her fifth deal of the cards, yet she never got a time for the attack, just that someone else was coming to help. "And you think the Sun card would mean daytime." But for some reason it could not mean the time which was just plain confusing. She shrugged as she tried to deal again only getting the same result.

XxX

George hadn't said a word since the fight with Jiemma. Minerva couldn't help but think that he was blaming her, but she would be wrong. George was actually planning how to deal with him the next time he appeared. If he were not prepared to fight Jiemma, the next time they became enemies, George would be crushed.

The deafening silence finally got to Minerva. He hadn't even made a complaint when she bandaged him up. Even when he unwrapped her attempt and ended up bandaging himself he had not said a word. Normally comfortable with silence, she couldn't help but break this one.

"I'm sorry for my father's actions." She bowed her head slightly. George tilted his head in confusion. He used this to communicate his thoughts rather than speaking. It was as if he did not notice or care that she was the reason for the fight. "Because of me yo…"

George interrupted. "'A child does not get to choose its parent, but it gets to choose its family.' I do not know what he has done to you or how he treats you. But you are not him, nor are you his." Finishing that statement George stood up and walked out of the lower rooms. Minerva was left to her thoughts.

George walked up the stairs and straight to Naruto who was laughing with Otoha at the back of the church.

"Hahahaha… Master was picking the grapefruit out of his hair for months. Hahahaha…" Naruto wheezed out. Apparently he was getting along well with the nun.

"Ha…hoho…" The nun struggled to keep her breath in. "It appears I owe you a Jose-san story Naruto. That was too funny."

"Next time." Naruto watched George approach, and could easily recognise the look in his eye. He wanted to do something. Otoha understood the hint and walked off. George stood beside the pew Naruto was on.

"I want her to join the guild." Naruto smiled at George's request. Once again, George wants to save another who was lost.

"What do you need done?" George analysed everything, and understood almost everything. He would have his plan, and would only ask of Naruto what he himself could not accomplish.

"Her father will not let her go and adding a new member to the guild during such a time of unrest.

"A new member will not change the coming war, and I can deal with Jiemma if the need arises." Naruto would reply with what he can guaranteed help with, and then follow up with what George himself must do. "She is trapped in a cage of her own making. Free her and she is saved." Naruto stood up and tapped the boy's shoulder, before walking out of the church. George had known this was what he needed to do, and Naruto knew he had, so this conversation was over.

The bond between these two was deep. The trust between them was a subconscious thing. George looked up to the mighty Naruto who stood up in the face of any danger in order to protect those behind him, no matter who they may be. Naruto knew that with such a smart and reliable companion watching his back, he could deal with whatever stood in front of him. Words were not something needed between these two; it was only a way of confirming what they already knew.

George was willing to give up everything to protect this girl.

Naruto would like nothing more than to pummel Jiemma into the ground for what he did to the girl.

Now outside, Naruto leapt all the way up to land beside Cana.

"Yo…" Naruto raised his hand in a wave as he watched the girl once again try to divine what time the enemy would arrive.

"Aaagh! It's not use!" Her magic wasn't working the way it was supposed to dammit. These enemies were too strong for fate to determine their actions.

"Oho? Can you read my fortune?" Naruto sat across from her, while Cana just shrugged. She could tell he did not believe that this magic was accurate.

"Sure why not. Place your hands here." She grabbed his hands and directed them to where they need to be. Her fortune telling magic wasn't her strongest ability, but it involved foresight so it was useful to know. "Do you know anyone that 'The Sun' could apply to?" She asked as she started to shuffle the cards.

"Magic or personality?" Naruto responded as the cards were split in front of him and Cana did her thing.

"Not sure. But there will be another helping us whenever they attack." Cana was almost done dealing.

"That won't change anything. We can't rely on someone we don't know will be here. So what's my fortune?" Naruto watched as certain cards appeared. He had no idea what any of them meant.

"Well well. It appears you'll have good luck with relationships." Cana grinned cheekily at Naruto who rolled his eyes. "Hmmm… you'll have to make not one but multiple choices soon that will not only define the life you will live from now on, but the lives of those around you. Shit… And someone close to you will die soon."

"Well that's ominous." Naruto shrugged. "But that was very broad you know. It could apply to almost anything."

"The choices that will define your life doesn't bother you?" Even though they were broader than usual, Cana was surprised by the utter lack of response from the blond.

"We all make those choices often, but if we're talking changing the world around us choices, wouldn't starting a war against my guild with its biggest rival already be one? There is no point in worrying, I will deal with them when they arrive." Cana nodded at Naruto's response. His point of view was simple enough. There was no point in worrying about what has yet to happen.

The two continued to keep watch while Cana continued to drink. Naruto refused of course. They enjoyed each other's company until Cattleya came down and called them for dinner. The night was young, and they had no way of knowing exactly when Asuras Wing would arrive.

XxX

"Ro-kun. Isn't this a little too excessive?" Adrianna couldn't help but ask her 'face' and fellow 'feather'.

"I thought so too, but Master's orders." Romario looked on to all of his underlings as they prepared for tonight's battle.

Asuras Wing was no normal dark guild. The Balam Alliance contained most dark guilds, but Asuras Wing was an exception. Usually any new dark guild was approached by one of the three pillars of the alliance, Oracion Seis, Tartaros and Grimoire Heart, but no one approached this guild. A dark guild becomes a dark guild when it goes against the Magic Councils agenda, but Asuras Wing was an extreme case. They were a collection of people who find joy in causing others pain. Destroying villages for no reason was sport, murder was a game, not even women and children were off limits. They were closer to a cult than a guild. Every member of this group could be considered the worst of the worst of humanity.

Now these generic evil members all worked under a face and its arms, which were split into 3 groups. One had been completely destroyed many years ago, so now there were only 2 groups remaining. Romario's group was one of these groups. Now these two groups held 99% of the guilds members, but only held about 1% of its strength. The secret Master and his 'feathers' were the real force behind this guild. Not even the Magic Council knew about this group's existence, nor were they aware of their true strength.

Three of these 'feathers' were about to attack the church with 50% of the guilds members in tow.

"Naruto Uzuamki is as strong as us. We have no way of knowing exactly how many others he has brought with him." Yuusuke stood beside Romario. To the average guild member, he was Romario's new arm, replacing the one who died.

"Yuu-kun why are you so worried? Could you not have beaten him?"

"Normally I would not be anxious of someone at his level. But what makes him different is that he is not afraid to end our lives. He is one wrong turn away from falling into his own darkness. It takes more strength to defeat someone without killing them, Naruto does not have that restriction. I fear given the right circumstances, he could defeat two of us alone."

"You rate him too highly, although he does use that…" Romario thought to himself about the power Naruto used. Did he truly share the same ability? When would he have gotten monk training? "No matter, we move just before the sun rises." Romario yelled for the entire group to hear. They all cheered while Yuusuke stepped back, still worried about the wild card that was Naruto Uzuamki.

XxX

It was Naruto's second turn on watch. The entire night had almost gone past. He, Cana, and Otoha had taken turns on watch while George and Minerva were left to rest. What Naruto didn't expect was for him to have company.

"Naruto."

"Cattleya-chan." Naruto pat the seat behind him. The pink haired nun nodded and sat beside him.

"Cat." She pointed to herself. It appears this was what she wanted to be called.

"Alright Cat-chan. What can I do for you?" The nun was fidgeting. She was making sure she wouldn't say what she wanted too, wrong.

"I not a fighter. Let me touch brain." To her, the words made complete sense.

"Whaa…?" To Naruto however, there was a massive jump in logic. When she reached her hands out to Naruto, he leaned backwards. "Hold on a second."

"Aah… sorry." When Naruto tilted his head slightly she continued. " **Archive Magic**."

"Aaaah… Go ahead." Naruto finally understood. She can't fight directly, so by getting access to everyone's mind she could help by sharing information. "You should have just said that." Naruto allowed the girl to upload a connection to his mind. "Thank you Cat-chan."

She smiled an innocent smile at Naruto. "I'll touch all brains." As she got up, Naruto reached out and grabbed her arm. Before she could speak, Naruto raised his finger and covered her lips. "Get everyone quickly."

"Okay…" She said before running back inside.

Naruto closed his eyes and started to chant. " _Create for me a nightmare. A never ending nightmare for my enemies to fear. Let this nightmare be the place of their demise._ **Black Battlefield.** "

"This is a familiar feeling." Yuusuke commented as Naruto's orange darkness covered not only over the church, but quite a large portion of the forest. Already unbuckled his jacket, and used his blue aura to cover all of Naruto's darkness beneath his guild members. It struggled to hold as Naruto's tried to raise spears of darkness to hit them. "This won't hold for long."

"That's long enough." Romario said before seemingly disappearing. In fact all he did was leap towards the source of the magic. They both grinned as their eyes met. Naruto raised his arms to block a punch, but instead Romario wrapped his arms around his waist and jumped. The two of them flew towards the centre of the town.

"You want to get civilians involved? Scum." Naruto commented as he broke out of the grip.

"No. I would like to fight on the water. If you are willing to hold back your bloodthirst until we get there."

"I take it I don't have much choice." Naruto sighed as he retracted his **Black Battlefield** into a small circle around him. He landed gently on a rooftop as Romario landed beside him. Naruto kept his eyes on the monk as he started to roof hop towards the ocean. Romario followed on silently, it was easy to see that Naruto was not leaving his back open.

[Naruto. Where are you?]

[George?] Naruto thought to himself. He must have been linked through the **Archive Magic**. [I have to deal with Romario. We planned for this, continue with the plan.]

[Make sure you come back to us alive Naruto-kun.]

[Let's have a drink when this is done.]

Otoha and Cana's words brought a smile to Naruto's lips. He had to hurry back there.

[ **Don't forget to find out why he knows chakra. I won't let you use my power otherwise.** ] Kurama warned the blond.

[I don't need your power to defeat him. But I can't waste time in this fight.] Naruto landed on the surface of the water causing Romario to chuckle. Romario also landed on the water. Neither of them fell in, and the look they shared showed that they had both confirmed their suspicions.

"You use Chi as well."

"Chi? Don't you mean Chakra?" The two shared a confused look as they continued to walk further away from the shore.

"Chakra? Who taught you how to use this power?" The monk was very confused. Was there another name for this power? As far as he knew his order of monks were the only ones who knew of this power.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." The fox inside chuckled slightly. A giant demon fox inside of this idiot would blow the monks puny little mind. Naruto stopped walking and took a fighting stance. He let his **Black Battlefield** extend. It flowed on top of the water.

"You're not going to catch me with that." He taunted as he leapt forward, avoiding the tentacles that tried to knock him back. Naruto once again blocked Romario's punch, but this time he was properly using his chakra properly. His arm did not break under the attack.

"Is that it?" Naruto mocked as he kicked Romario in the gut.

"This is going to take a while." He cracked his neck as he took off his monk robe, leaving only his pants on. When he did so, Naruto could feel the spike in his opponent's chakra. He was too fast for Naruto's magic. This was going to be a fist fight.

XxX

The entire attacking force except for Yuusuke and Adrianna entered the church. The altar at the front of the church had candles all over it. In front of it knelt a nun.

"I'm sorry, but if you are here for mass it's not for a few hours." The words that left the nuns mouth bounced along the walls. The men and women all seemed to freeze as an unexpected chill ran down all of their spines.

"We ain't here for no mass lady, but you know that dunt ya." The first to snap out of it stepped towards the nun, he pulled out a dagger and licked the blade. "Telus where it is, and we let you off easy."

"Let's just kill er. I'm not one for church." Another around the back spoke. Members of the crowd started to speak up one by one. You couldn't tell if these people were confident, or stupid, because those that had yet to speak realised that there was magic in the nun's voice.

"This is a house of god." The nun stood up and turned to face the group. Once again they all froze. "This place allows all sinners to ask for forgiveness, and I on behalf of god will help. If anyone here seeks forgiveness please make your presence known."

"Oi oi. This bitch doesn't seem to understand the situation." This woman stormed towards the nun angrily. The nun was saddened by this response, but she knew what needed to be done. Just before the woman's hand grabbed her, she started to loudly hum. It reverberated through the room. It sounded less like one person humming, but multiple. How she did this, they wouldn't know, nor did they have the luxury to figure out. A strong force started to push them all down onto their knees.

"One must kneel before god if they wish to be forgiven." Those were the last words most of them heard as the humming started again and most of them fell unconscious. None of them could stand under this pressure. This nun was in a whole other league.

XxX

George stood on the roof. When Naruto wasn't there, he realised he was right when they made this plan. Otoha was confident she could take out all the average members of the guild by herself, so the remaining three were to fight with Yuusuke and Adrianna. His eyes met with the person who helped lead the attack against his village, and his blood started to boil. After waving his hand tauntingly, George jumped backwards to be away from the two new occupants.

"Asked up here personally by a Deadman. Is this not truly an honour Yuu-kun?"

"Let's finish this quickly and help Romario." Yuusuke spoke as he made his two blades out of aura. George smiled slightly as Yuusuke charged towards him, only to be kicked in the side. Adrianna was no longer on the roof, instead Minerva kicked his side. Instead of responding, Yuusuke straightened himself up and blocked George's oncoming strike, which he returned, aiming for George's face. He felt the girl coming from his side, but he knew he had enough time to block.

What he didn't expect was that instead of attacking George, his attack swung right over Minerva's head, who then jumped backwards out of his range. And the person to his side was George, who with the extra reach of the sword, did not leave him enough time to block or counter, so to avoid a killing blow, he dodged to the side. The cut on his chest was not deep, but the explosion in his face hurt more. The smoke from it blinded him long enough for George to get out of his range.

Growling slightly, Yuusuke used his **Interval Skip** on George who froze. Yuusuke took this opportunity to charge at the girl who disappeared into a purple glow, making him miss his attack completely. Finally realising that the girl was the one making them jump around the place, he knew what he needed to do. He wasn't going to risk attacking George now, as he might unfreeze before he got there, so instead he leapt backwards. Right into another explosion. This time he blocked it with his aura. George unfroze, quickly got his bearings and leapt towards Yuusuke once again. A barrier of aura was placed in between them, and then he froze Minerva. The barrier shot swords out towards George, who was forced to block in an uncomfortable position, meaning he couldn't leap to Minerva's aid as Yuusuke leapt towards her.

Just as the aura blade was lowered, Minerva ducked and created an explosion as she uppercut Yuusuke's jaw. "You cannot freeze my territory." Yuusuke earnt a new shallow cut on his back as George reached him before he could get away.

The orange haired man rubbed her jaw. "Play time is over."

[I have subdued all those who desecrate the lord's house. I will remain here so they will not rise.]

XxX

"Ara?" Adrianna asked confused. One second she watched as Yuusuke prepared to attack the opponent, and the next, around 20 cards were flying towards her. Cana grinned as the plan worked perfectly. Almost perfectly. A light yellowish orange light burst around her, deflecting all of the cards.

"Of course it can't be that easy." Cana laughed to herself slightly, as those 20 cards returned to her. She raised her hand, pushing all the cards she had buried underneath Adrianna to rise. This time a light pink light surrounded her as she rose up.

"How boring." She commented, before pushing out a stream of pink light towards Cana who easily dodged it. "I'm going to warn you dead woman. I am the strongest 'feather' here tonight."

"Perfect." Cana sarcastically commented as her entire field of vision was covered with light pink balls of boredom. "I might need a little help here." The light attacks were all shot towards Cana. She pulled out three cards made a triangle out of them, and summoned a shield between them. This struggled to hold back all of the light. You could hear the barrier starting to crack. The barrier held up.

Cana let out a sigh of relief as the attack stopped, but suddenly her vision was filled with the same pink light. The attack was coming again. If she continued to block these attacks she would run out of magic quickly.

[I have subdued all those who desecrate the lord's house. I will remain here so they will not rise.] Good for you Otoha, Cana thought as she layered two of those triangle barriers on top of each other.

"Looks tasty." A new voice appeared as the light shot towards Cana. She watched as all the light started to disappear into a young boy's mouth. The boy looked to be around 12. His spikey yellow hair was finally visible now that the light had died down. As was the orange sleeveless jacket, white shirt and blue pants that he wore also became visible. He had a small scar above his right eye that Cana saw as he looked back and grinned.

" **Dragon Slayer**?" Cana asked surprised by the sudden addition.

"Not just any **Dragon Slayer**." A red cat with a blue jacket and wings appeared beside Cana. "This is Sting Eucliffe the **Light Dragon Slayer**. And I am Lector his partner."

Cana looked at the back of the **Dragon Slayer**. "The Sun is it…" She smiled. With him she had a chance.

* * *

A/N

Well… that's four future Sabertooth members introduced so far (not including Lector). Kudos to those who noticed the one that wasn't in this chapter.

Now before anyone complains, Kurama not being able to purge the alcohol fast enough does make sense, and even if it didn't I don't care. It was funny. Laugh dammit!

I kid, but seriously, poison should and does effect Naruto just not to the extent of a normal person. Cana's liver is not normal.

Final thing, Dark Guilds by definition don't follow the rules of the Magic Council, in other words take jobs they find inappropriate. This was why they disliked Fairy Tail so much, for being against them so often and causing so much damage yet technically following the rules. I will go further into the idea that Dark Guild's aren't necessarily bad guys.

"And I say, Zangief you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are 'bad' guy." – Wreck It Ralph, if you haven't seen this movie, go do that…

Right now…

But please review first

OnionKing Out


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